Here Be Dragons
by guardianofscrewingup
Summary: After generations of being trapped behind a wall of storms, the Vikings of Berk find they're suddenly free, and Hiccup and Toothless undertake an expedition to explore the world beyond, only to find themselves pulled into a terrible conflict between rebel factions and secret societies that threaten to plunge three foreign nations - and Berk - into a terrible war. [ATLA crossover]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** So this fic is a bit of an AU, merging the world of HTTYD and ATLA in a way I hope makes sense. Berk, the surrounding isles, and the small landmass known as the "mainland" are considered in Air Nomad legend to be something like Atlantis, a society that angered the spirits and disappeared behind a wall of storms. The Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Fire Nation aren't aware of their existence at all, thinking that patch of sea to simply be a place too dangerous to sail, much like the Bermuda Triangle.

The fic is set five years after the events of HTTYD 2 and ATLA.

* * *

 **Here Be Dragons**

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

* * *

 **Year 2 BG**

The young monk wiggled on his cushion as he looked at the pai sho board. He had trouble sitting still. He always had trouble sitting still, in fact, which meant he had to resist the urge to get up and scoot around the room or do handstands or do anything other than sitting down. It was a nice evening outside and the motes of dust dancing in the pale rays of sun filtering in through his window tempted him into dancing around, too. The sun was setting, though, and it was unlikely he'd get to go outside again. He had a pretty early bedtime because he woke up so early every day.

His attention span (or lack thereof) was why Gyatso always made him play pai sho, so he'd actually slow down for a little while and focus. Aang was already close to being an Airbending master - he was way ahead of all his friends and he even had a neat trick he was going to show the Council of Elders soon to see if he passed the test - but when Airbending came as naturally to you as breathing, that wasn't the same thing as having discipline. Aang was doing so well they thought that at ten years old he might become the youngest Airbending master in Air Nomad history and discipline was what Gyatso thought he needed to _actually_ become it.

Still, even with how antsy Aang felt, Gyatso had picked a good way to keep him focused on the game. Besides his usual jokes (and attempts at cheating that kept Aang on his toes) he had decided to tell him a story.

One that he'd gotten distracted from for a moment.

"Are you listening, Aang?"

"Now I am!" Aang responded cheerfully, flashing Gyatso a big 'See how good I am listening?' grin.

Gyatso only smiled a gentle smile in return.

"Let us go back to the beginning then! Once upon a time, when the world was young, humans and spirits coexisted, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in conflict. One group of humans that often fought against the spirits sought to free themselves from their influence. So they built a fleet of ships and started a perilous journey over the ocean, hoping to find a place where they could build a colony of their own, away from the rest of the world. It was a dangerous journey, where they had to fight ocean spirits that they displeased alongside the natural dangers of the sea. Before long, half of their fleet had been destroyed by the spirits and by storms, and yet they traveled on, hoping to find a place to call home."

"Why didn't they just try to get along with the spirits? Wouldn't that have been easier?"

"Some people are blind to the simplest solutions that lay in front of them. And some people see themselves as above the spirits. Some have a nature of wanting to exert power over the world around them instead of living in harmony with it. They believe they can crush the mountains, or tame the seas, or destroy the natural world without consequence."

"But nobody can do that. Even the best Earthbenders can't crush a whole mountain and even the best Waterbender can't control the whole ocean. That's impossible."

"Exactly! Their desire to control the world around them, to have dominion over it and the spirits was their undoing. They eventually found the place they were looking for, a land of many islands. At first, it seemed there were no spirits there, but that was only because they weren't attuned to the natural world. So they spread out over the land and built colonies and villages, destroying the trees and plants and trying to shape the land into what they wanted it to be. Eventually, this angered the guardian spirits of the lands they had taken over, great spirit dragons -"

"Like the dragons we have around the Four Nations?"

"These dragons were different. The dragons of the Four Nations are attuned to the spirit world, but they're still flesh and blood. In fact, the last Avatar, Roku, was friends with a dragon! He allowed Avatar Roku to ride him everywhere."

"Wooooow! How did he get it to let him ride it? I want to find a dragon! Do you think if I ask really nicely one will let me ride it?"

Gyatso laughed gently at Aang's enthusiasm.

"Perhaps one day a dragon might become your friend, too, but the people of the many islands weren't so polite or kind to the dragon spirits they found as Avatar Roku. They waged a terrible war against the spirit dragons, one that left many dead on both sides. Eventually only one of the spirit dragons was left and as it lay dying it gave them a terrible warning. It told them that because of their violence and rage they would be punished."

Aang's eyes went wide, as he listened. He was so transfixed he almost didn't see Gyatso try to cheat again.

"Hey!" he laughed, moving the pai sho tile Gyatso had been nudging back into place. "No fair!"

Gyatso laughed again, pleased to see that his charge was focused enough catch him.

"How did the dragons punish them?" Aang asked, his expression sobering.

"The dying dragon told them that from then on forward, the spirit dragons would reincarnate as flesh and blood dragons and as long as they lived in conflict with the natural world, as long as the people of the islands were hostile, they would forever be at war. That would be their punishment, endless conflict. The dragon warned them that they would never be rid of them - any time the dragons died they would just reincarnate once more."

"That's terrible," Aang said sadly. "But why didn't they just stop fighting? All they had to do was just stop fighting, right?"

"By now, their hearts were full of hatred, and they refused to let it go. Because of this the dragon also didn't want them to leave the islands and carry that hatred with them out into the rest of the world, so he called on the spirits of the sea and air to cause the islands to disappear behind a wall of storms that would sink any ship that tried to enter or leave and create such winds that no one could fly past them or over them. Or so the legend goes."

"Is it a true story or is it just a legend?"

"No one know for sure! It is said that Air Nomads once visited the islands in their travels, because the people there were less hostile to other humans and were willing to trade. During the end of their war with the spirits, an Air Nomad named Jampa, who had visited the islands, tried to implore them to make peace, but his warnings were ignored. It is said that he was the last to leave the islands on his flying bison before he saw it consumed by the wall of storms."

"So all those people were just stuck there? Are they still stuck there?" Aang asked, still wide-eyed.

"Only if the story is real. Jampa was supposedly the one that brought the story of what happened to the people of the islands back to the other Air Nomads and there is an area of the sea to the northwest of the Fire Nation where there are terrible storms that make the area too dangerous for anyone to fly or sail near them. But the Fire Nation and the Water Tribes think that part of the sea is just naturally dangerous and think nothing else of it. And the story is very old; It's been passed down through many generations of Air Nomads so it may just be made up - a cautionary tale. But whether it's fiction or not, its lesson is very clear."

Aang was used to Gyatso telling him stories and expecting him to tell him what the lesson or message was so his face screwed up as he thought about it.

"The lesson is that fighting and anger and causing suffering just leads to more suffering. The people of those islands got stuck in an endless cycle of war and violence because they wouldn't stop hurting the dragon spirits. And the other lesson is that people should live in peace with the spirits."

"Exactly. The world is made of cycles, Aang."

"Like the Avatar cycle?"

"That's one of them but there are more cycles in the world, cycles of violence and retribution and cycles of peace and kindness." Gyatso smiled, and then looked out the window, at the waning light that was now casting Aang's room in shadow. "And another cycle is day and night! Now that it's night-time it's time for you to go to bed."

Aang groaned. "The sun isn't all the way down yet! Can't I stay up a little longer? We're not even done our pai sho game."

Gyatso looked at the board, picked up a tile, and in a few simple jumps he won the game.

"Now we are!"

Aang just laughed at being beaten so suddenly and soundly. Realizing he'd been thoroughly beaten at this whole bedtime thing as well, he hopped up and jumped into bed, airbending his blanket over him. Gyatso closed Aang's curtains to the last of the dim evening light.

"If it was real and wasn't just a legend," said Aang, pulling his blanket up to his chin, "do you think the people stuck on those islands will ever be able to stop fighting?"

He didn't like the idea that they'd be stuck there forever and never find peace.

"One would hope so! But if they're still there and if the storms are still raging on then they've been at war for a very long time," said Gyatso. "So long that they perhaps don't even realize how much of the world there is outside what they know. We're lucky in that we have the Avatar to help maintain balance in the world. Cut off from the Four Nations and the Avatar, it would take someone very special to bring about such great change after so many generations of violence."

"Maybe one of them could be like Avatar Roku and make friends with a dragon."

"I won't say it's impossible, because nothing truly is! But if the story is true then for a people so used to conflict, such a thing wouldn't be easy..."

* * *

 **107 Years Later...**

"WAAAHOOOOOOOOOOO!" Hiccup crowed as he and Toothless shot out of a dive at breakneck speed. "Yeeeaah! Let's go, bud!"

This had been a looooong trip so far and the two of them occasionally got bored. They'd found a small island to camp on for the night so after a meal and some sleep, the two of them were refreshed and ready for another day of exploring. Like they did on so many days, they'd decided to start their day with a nice _un_ leisurely morning flight.

As usual they worked effortlessly together, and Hiccup reveled in the feeling the same way he always did as they flew. They were two halves of one whole and just like the line between man and dragon was so thin as to nearly be nonexistent, the same went for what separated them from the sky. Sometimes it felt to Hiccup that he wasn't even a person anymore, that the cool wind had filled him up from head to toe until he was a part of it.

The breeze was nice here, still cool but devoid of the bitter bite of the wind back home. Down this far to the southeast, the seas and winds warmed up significantly and the light of the sun was actually capable of warming his face whenever he wasn't wearing his helmet.

"Oh, this is amazing," said Hiccup as their flying leveled out. "It's just so much warmer down here."

The cold was something every Viking simply got used to but it still wasn't exactly pleasant to live somewhere where you had to worry about bits of your body freezing solid and snapping off. Where they were flying now was so far south that the leather Hiccup was wearing was actually holding just a little too much heat in.

And that was great. He had never once in his life actually had the thought 'I'm feeling too hot, maybe I should take something off.' At least, he'd never thought it outside the forge.

Far off in the distance, a shape loomed up and Hiccup heard a rumbling sound that made it clear they'd reached their destination.

"I think this is it up ahead. Let's get higher up - and avoid going directly over top. We learned our lesson last time."

Toothless chuffed in agreement, making an annoyed sound that communicated 'And whose idea was that?' very clearly.

They got closer and closer until the volcano they were looking for finally loomed up in front of them.

"It's exactly where the Chief of the Green Isles said it was."

Hiccup and Toothless did a few lazy flybys.

It was exactly where it was supposed to be, except he didn't see what else was supposed to be there, what they'd all said was out there - every chief, every village elder, every sailor that had gone out to the edges. His mother had said the same thing, that in all the times she'd traveled out a certain distance that it'd been there.

And the volcano…the volcano only confirmed what they'd said.

"Look at that. See the way it's shaped on that side? It fits what they all told me. Let's set down over there. I want to check the map again, just to be sure."

They came in for a landing on a rock formation a safe distance away from the volcano and Hiccup hopped off of Toothless' back. For a moment, he stared at the volcano, watching the steam rise from the lava pouring over the edges of the cliff on the one side of the volcano into the sea. He looked at the rock formations around it all and saw the signs of extreme erosion, as if wind and water had worn them down as fast as the volcano could make them.

He pulled out his map, lifting up his helmet so he could take a better look at it, kneeling against the stone. Toothless peered over his shoulder.

"It's the right distance. This is it, this is what they were talking about. Look at the stone." He gestured to the side of the volcano. "One side of the volcano is worn down, like it was eroded by something, and the other isn't. All the rock formations are worn down on this side and not on the other side of the volcano. It all fits."

He gestured out to the east.

"Annnd despite all that? Nothing!"

In the few short years he'd been chief, with the help of his mother and his friends, he'd pushed at every edge of the map, and whether he'd traveled north, south, east, or west, he'd found the same thing, villages talking about an edge to it all. A part of the sea filled with storms where the wind and rain was so terrible that it sunk any ship that tried to go through it. Even his mother had found the same thing, traveled so far in one direction once that she'd run into it, too. She said the wind had been so bad that she and Cloudjumper'd had to turn back. She even tried going over it, going so high up into the sky that the air had gone cold and thin, but the wind was still too strong and she hadn't been able to pass.

North, south, east, or west, every village or island on the edges had people that said the same thing, that there were storms that made the sea and sky untraversable.

The volcano even confirmed it. This was where the chief of the Green Isles said the barrier had existed and that the massive volcano was pressed up right against it, with one side weathering the storm and the other free of it. Sure enough, the strange lopsided growth of the volcano made it clear that one side of it had been heavily eroded by wind and waves and rain and that the other hadn't. The lava seemed to be piling up and actually building formations now without interference but the way it'd cooled and formed rock made it seem like that was a relatively recent change.

The storms were gone. Kaput. There was nothing but clear sky and smooth sailing.

Which explained the dragons. A few months ago they'd starting flying in from the east, frightening the villages closest to the edge of the maps. The were massive, beautiful dragons, even larger than Timberjacks, with red and blue bodies and heads with scaly golden crests that were shaped in a way that made them almost look as if they were made of only other dragons Hiccup seen that were large were the Bewilderbeasts and the Foreverwings and they were earthbound due to their size.

They'd named them Brightclaws due to the fact their feet and claws were usually gold. Fortunately, despite their size, they were quite peaceful and seemed content to hunt whales and seals and scooped whole schools of fish out of the ocean with their massive mouths, using their teeth to filter them out of the water. When Hiccup and Toothless had flown close to one once, it'd shot them a look that'd seemed like a simple 'Oh, look at you there' and continued on its way as if they hadn't been there at all.

In fact, some started to move in from the east right then, a flock of about six of them, and Hiccup watched as they gracefully flew overhead.

"This is amazing. Every village - every single village, mom, everyone - said we were blocked off by storms. Like a massive...ring around the archipelago and the mainland. This is supposed to be the edge - the very edge - and what's here?" He gestured to the east. "Nothing!"

A great, big, wonderful nothing!

He turned to Toothless.

"Except it's not nothing. If the storms that were here are gone and the Brightwings changed their migration patterns to find new territory, then there has to be some kind of landmass out there. Other islands, at least."

Hiccup took out his pencil and scribbled on his map, and then looked to Toothless.

"Do you know what this means?"

Toothless chuffed in an affectionate way that implied that yes, he knew, but that Hiccup could go ahead and say it anyway because he was so excited by it that he wouldn't be able to stop him.

"It means there could even be a whole continent out there. Maybe one that's never been explored before - or even better, one that has people on it. There could be whole tribes out there that are completely different from us. We could open up new trade routes, exchange books like we did with the mainland - just think of all the things we could learn from each other. And the only thing that was in our way is gone, for whatever reason."

Maybe some kind of strange shift in the climate? The storms definitely hadn't been a temporary thing. The villages that had tried sailing through them now and again had said the storms had been there for generations.

"The whole world is out there waiting for us, bud."

Much as Hiccup wanted to, he couldn't fly out there right away, though. He only had enough rations to get back home. And the Brightclaws were huge and could cover incredible distances without getting tired. That meant that whatever else was out there might be a very long distance away. If they were going to go on expedition into the unknown they had to plan it carefully so he had enough food and fresh water, and so he and Toothless didn't wind up stranded in the middle of the ocean with nowhere to land.

They also needed to come up with a plan for first contact with any outside tribes. Hiccup had his usual "don't worry, the dragons we're riding won't eat you" routine but that was with peoples that spoke the same - or at least similar - languages. Even the dialects some villages used that were hard to understand had some similarities to the languages around the rest of the archipelago - and all of them had similarities with how they spoke on the mainland.

That made sense, given their history. That was one one of the most interesting things Hiccup had discovered in his travels. He'd discovered the mainland, a fairly large island landmass to the west of Berk, and after they'd worked out the language differences, he'd spoken to the scholars there, and had found out that all of the tribes that'd spread out to the islands had sailed away to create their own colonies, hoping to escape the dragons that plagued the mainlands.

It hadn't exactly gone as planned, naturally, because the dragons were everywhere. And because of the storms, which had apparently kept the tribes on the farthest edges of the map from going any further.

Everything was different now, though. Every village and every tribe that the Berk Vikings had made contact with in the last five years had been taught to live in peace with the dragons around them. Even on the mainlands, after immeasurable years of bloodshed (thousands and thousands, judging from the historical records), had finally accepted what most of the tribes were calling the "dragon peace."

And now, for whatever reason, the storms were gone.

It didn't occur to Hiccup even _once_ that both were connected.

Hiccup folded up his map again and put it away, then hopped on Toothless again, flipping his helmet down.

"C'mon, bud, we have to head back and talk to the others. And figure out where to go from here."

He couldn't wait to share this with Astrid and his mother.

As he and Toothless took to the air again, they were watched.

The spirits around the archipelago had only been allowed by La to interfere with this part of the ocean because of their promise and that promise had been fulfilled. They didn't dare risk the ocean spirit's wrath by continuing to interfere with the sea longer than they needed to.

Voicelessly, one the spirits of the sea whispered to one of the spirits of the air, _"The boy doesn't know what he's done. Thousands of years of bloodshed and he doesn't even know."_

" _How would he?"_ one of the spirits of the air whispered back. _"The people of the islands have all forgotten. You know how humans are, always forgetting the things that are most important."_

" _How do we know this isn't a mistake?"_

" _The curse was one that was meant to be broken. It was a punishment meant to last only as long as they kept killing. Now they've stopped. The dragons never meant for that punishment to last into times of peace. The point_ was _peace_ _ **.**_

" _They might fight the other humans out beyond the rest of the sea."_

" _We made a promise and that promise was fulfilled. What the humans do now is no longer our concern."_

The skies and seas were open to them and the humans could now do whatever they wished.

For good or ill.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Just another note on timelines: the events in the comic "The Promise" are canon but not much beyond that.

* * *

 **Here Be Dragons**

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

* * *

The first thing Hiccup always paid attention to as he flew back to Berk was the statue of his father carved into the cliffs. He and Toothless always did a lazy flyby near the statue before landing in the village below.

 _Hi, dad,_ he thought, smiling softly. By now, moss had started to grow on it, in little patches, marking the passage of time, but it was never something that bothered him. It just made him think of how it would get old, how it would be there for ages and ages, so that people would remember his father.

By the time he landed, most of the tribe had gathered, happily welcoming him back the way they always did.

"Welcome home, chief!" Spitelout called out.

"Spitelout, Phlegma, Mulch, Bucket, Bob, uh, everyone."

"How did everything go?" asked Phlegma.

"The Chief of the Green Isles agreed to the trade agreement and they're finally settled in with their local dragons sooo everything went great, actually. Which, you know, considering they were originally threatening war, I'm gonna call that one a win."

"Chief, we've been having some problems with -"

 _Oh, here we go_ , thought Hiccup and he held up a hand.

"Whatever problems are going on, I promise I'll get to them. Let me check in with Astrid. She'll update me and we'll get everything taken care of. Anybody know where she is?"

"In the Great Hall right now," said Spitelout.

"Good, I could use a meal that isn't dried-something."

He called it dried-something because it was either dried out meat or dried out fruit or dried...something. The travel rations made for him were always dried and always a something.

He smiled at his people and then he and Toothless moved through the crowd towards the Great Hall. Fishlegs ran up and caught him at the steps before he could get there.

"Hiccup, did you find it? Did you find where they're coming from? I've been keeping in touch with the dragonologists on the other islands through the post -" They had that now, a letter delivery system using Terrible Terrors "-and we were right that the Brightclaws are apparently only migrating in from the east. None of them have spotted them coming from anywhere else, and apparently their migration pattern arcs down south where it's warmest. Some of them are also flying back out west which suggest this is an extension of their hunting grounds instead of a nesting migration."

"I didn't find an exact island where they're migrating from but get this: the storms are gone." Hiccup gestured enthusiastically "You know the storms all the villages around the edges kept saying their ships couldn't pass through? Gone! And they're definitely migrating from the east now that it's clear, which means -"

"More islands or another landmass where they're migrating in from out east!"

"Exactly! I'm going to tell Astrid. We'll compare notes after I meet with her and eat. We definitely have some exploring to do."

Fishlegs very nearly danced in place. "Ooooh, this is so exciting! We haven't discovered a new species in over a year! I'm going to go tell your mom, she'll be excited about it, too."

"Tell her I'll be in to see her after I talk to Astrid."

"Will do!" With that, Fishlegs ran off.

Hiccup found Astrid inside the Great Hall, eating and talking to Bjorn about planning for the summer harvest. She really was good at this because she apparently had it all settled.

"Helloooo," he said to get her attention. "Getting up to a lot of chiefin' without me, I see. "

Bjorn walked away with his orders and Astrid popped up from her seat the moment she saw him. Behind Hiccup, Stormfly and Toothless greeted each other and started to goof around.

"Well, it is my _job_ ," she pointed out, running over and throwing her arms around his neck.

"It's just eternally a pleasant surprise to come back home and see that the village hasn't burned down or fallen into complete catastrophe."

After withdrawing from the hug, Hiccup inclined his head respectfully and grinned.

"Chief," he said, by way of greeting.

"Chief," she said back, doing the same.

It was their little joke, the two of them greeting each other with the respect you'd show a chief.

The little arrangement Hiccup had thought up, was, in his opinion, one of the best decisions he'd ever made as chief.

Berk was not like the other islands with their single chiefs - or like the mainlands with its single king. No, Berk had _two_ co-chiefs, each with their own respective responsibilities. Astrid was the home chief, responsible for day-to-day goings on around the island and diplomacy with the chiefs on the closest surrounding islands. Hiccup, on the other hand, was the away chief, responsible for some of the things that were necessary to safeguard the long term prosperity of Berk. He was the one that met and made new alliances with the new societies they ran into, he was the one responsible for spreading the dragon peace, he drew up the trade agreements and peace treaties.

He didn't leave all the responsibilities of Berk itself to Astrid. For instance, she gathered up some of the problems she couldn't fix regarding infrastructure and tossed them at him whenever he was home so he could figure out solutions using his mechanical aptitude. But for the most part they each had their respective responsibilities and areas of authority. She had the final say on all things domestic, and he had the final say on all things to do with their interaction with the outside world.

And it worked. It really did, especially since they put their heads together on anything they disagreed on to find some kind of compromise - often one that was better than what they each would've come up with on their own. It was so much easier now than Hiccup trying to balance it all himself.

She'd earned it, anyway, by rallying Berk to its defense from the Outcasts when he'd been away on a diplomacy run to Hopeless with his mother a few years back. Seeing how well she'd done when he'd gotten home, seeing how the village had looked up to her afterwards, had made him decide to share leadership with her on the spot. A perfect solution to Hiccup's "how do I manage to be everywhere at once?" problem.

The village had been a little anxious about the change at first, as they so often were in regards to any change at all, but they trusted Hiccup and they trusted Astrid, and over time it had even become a point of pride for them. Berk was the village so great that it had _two_ chiefs and that was definitely more chiefs than any other colony or village nearby.

The only downside…

"Hmm, you're not going to meet anyone if you let your beard get messy like that," she commented in a sly way as she sat back down again, sliding some papers across the table so they were there for Hiccup to look at as he say down.

"Nooot really my biggest priority when dodging axes being thrown at my heads by foreign chiefs."

The only downside was that their relationship had...well.

It wasn't really that it'd gone south. There had been no explosion or wild crash. Mostly it'd been sort of a slow...drift. They still loved being around each other, they still talked to each other, they still enjoyed certain fun activities while alone together, but certain things had changed with the distance.

Not really in a terrible way. But they'd decided that maybe if they were going to spend that much time apart it was best to let certain things go.

So they still enjoyed each other. They still spent time with each other when they could. They were still best friends. But they also had both decided to leave certain things...open. So that they could each find other people if they wanted.

And that was okay. Heck, they even encouraged each other in it a little, hoping they'd each find whatever made them happy, someone that might live in a way that was more complimentary to the both of them.

One thing was for sure, though, Hiccup constantly running around in his semi-nomadic lifestyle definitely did not work for the two of them.

"Oh no. The chief of the Green Isles didn't take us up on the trade agreement, I take it?" Astrid asked with concern, going over her own paperwork.

Paperwork was one invention both he and Astrid regretted but it definitely helped keep things in order. Hiccup took a look at the lists of problems she'd gathered for him to work on.

The windmills apparently needed a better design for the gear mechanism near the water pumps.

"Nah, I talked him into it in the end but Ironfist definitely has 'iron' in his name for a reason. He's tough ol' geezer for someone who's only five feet tall. Did you know he's eighty-five? Eighty-five and shriveled as a prune and he tossed a full-sized axe fifteen feet in the air."

Astrid laughed. "You still have your head so it's safe to say you and Toothless dodged it."

"Yes, we dodged it. Head's still firmly attach. So everything's fine there." He paused. "Also I maaay have added a little to the map, there's this really interesting -"

"Hiccup," Astrid chastised, "we agreed you'd stop adding to the map! Your mother and Eret are doing fine with it. No wonder you're three weeks late getting back."

"I had something important to check out! And I checked it out and found out something _amazing_."

Now she was at least listening. "What did you find out?"

"Okay, so -" Hiccup pulled out his map and stood up, spreading it out over the table. "-we've heard from all the villages and colonies around the edges that there's always been dangerous parts of the sea, right? Storms. It's always been storms, ones that never seem to stop, that have gone on for generations."

"The ones that block the ships and dragons," she said, leaning over it.

"The ones that block the ships and dragons." Hiccup pointed to the villages and islands on the edges, the ones closest to the giant circle of storms he'd penciled in. "North, south, east, west, they all confirmed it. Mom and Eret confirmed it in a few places where there are no islands, too, down in the northwest and southwest. But the Brightclaws were coming in from the east, so I asked Ironfist if they'd seen a lot of them and they had, and he said the part of the storm wall nearest the Green Isles was right up against a volcano. Toothless and I decided to check it out since that was a good landmark to find the storms -"

Toothless had nosed up behind him now and made a rumbling sound of annoyance and narrowed his eyes in a way that made it clear he was trying to dodge blame over going off-mission.

"Okay, so _I_ decided we should check it out, and-" Hiccup pointed to the volcano. "It's gone. The part of the storm wall nearest the Green Isles? Gone. Nothing there. The volcano was exactly where Ironfist said it was and you could even tell from looking at it that there'd definitely been one side weathering some extreme weather. The way the lava formations had been built up and worn down was consistent with that. But it was nothing but clear skies - well, clear other than the Brightclaws migrating in from the east."

Her eyes went wide. "Which means there's a landmass beyond that and we're not locked in anymore. And any dragons that were past the storms aren't locked out."

" _Exactly_." Hiccup practically danced away from the table, wrapped up in his excitement. "There have to be islands out there for the Brightclaws to migrate from - maybe even a new continent! Astrid, we need to explore it. Those storms were supposedly there for generations, and on the mainland, they have all that stuff in the history records about migrating from somewhere that they thought was just legend, but what if it isn't? What if people migrated from some other continent, settled in the mainlands, and then our ancestors spread out to the islands from there?"

"There could be people out there."

"Entirely different societies that haven't had contact with the people in our neck of the woods for thousands of years!" A pause. "Or a continent that's totally unexplored, but I'd put my money on there being people out there instead. Just think of the trade we could open up and the -"

Astrid's face screwed up in thought. "Hiccup, this might not be a good thing."

"Why wouldn't it be?"

"Well, for one, we don't know why the storms suddenly went away."

"The weather changes sometimes. I mean we've had long-term shifts on Berk. Our great grandparents had record colds during the winter frost compared to us, for a couple'a decades."

"Exactly," she said, her eyes wide. "It shifts. What if we start traveling past it while it's open for a while but then it shifts back? We don't know how long this will last."

"It's still worth a look, don't you think?"

"And if there are people out there, they might not be friendly."

Now that was food for thought.

"Even if they aren't, we have our dragons and so do all the other islands and the mainland now. They wouldn't stand a chance if they tried to invade."

"Hiccup, think about it. If there are people out there, if the historical records on the mainland are right that all of our peoples migrated to this part of the world thousands and thousands of years ago, then whatever people they left behind on whatever islands or continents are out there have been developing differently from us for all that time. And we don't know that they've had to deal with dragons like us, they might only live in our part of the world."

"And? That's something to be excited about, if they are different from us. Think of what we could learn from them."

"Unless they're war-like. The dragons kept destroying everything we made, everything we did to build up our islands, and fighting them kept us from from traveling, exploring, and building things as much as we could have until you figured out how we could get along with them. If there are people out there and they've had all this time to develop without having to fight something like dragons, they could have technology that's much better than ours. They could have weapons that even our dragons can't fight."

That actually had not occurred to Hiccup, due to all his excitement. It should have, but it didn't.

"Ooooh," he said thoughtfully, sitting down at the table. Astrid sat down across from him, still looking at the map.

This was exactly why making her co-chief had been a good idea. He was much less naive than he'd been years ago, often figuring out things like this, but sometimes he still got caught up in his own excitement, thinking more about what could be discovered or innovated than how other people thought. Her considering the angles he hadn't had come in handy more than once.

"We have to go about this very carefully, especially since whatever languages they speak could be entirely different from ours," she said. "At least all the islands we've run into, and the mainland, all spoke something similar. And we do need to consider maybe trying to avoid contact altogether."

Hiccup rubbed his chin in thought. "Yeah, but if the storms are gone and we can travel past them, anyone that might be out there can travel past them, too. They could sail right up to us. Astrid, we need to try to make contact first, so we can control how we do it. The last thing we need is some strange people sailing a ship in and accidentally getting into a fight with one of the islands and their dragons. They might shoot first out of panic, whatever Vikings they shoot at might fire back to defend themselves, and then we could be looking at a war."

"And if they get into a fight with Vikings on dragons, it's not like they're going to be able to tell all the different islands apart. They'd go to war with all of us."

"Exactly. Our peoples are all different but it's not like outsiders would be able to see the differences. We're similar enough that it could be all-out war with _all_ the islands and the mainland, not just whichever one they ran into first. That would be a nightmare."

"You're right, we do need to try to explore and see if there's anyone to make first contact with instead of waiting for them to come to us."

"And you're right that they might be hostile and have better technology. We'll have to do this very, very carefully. I think we should only send one of us, with one dragon. If we approach another culture on the backs of dragons and have more than one person they might think it's an attack."

She gave him a flat stare. "You're going to volunteer yourself."

"I am _so_ going to volunteer myself," he said, not even bothering to hide it.

"You just got back!"

"I know, but I can take care of what I need to quickly enough-" he pointed at the papers full of problems she'd given him. "And who else is there? You're needed here, most of the other chiefs would think a headbutt was a proper diplomatic greeting, and we can't trust King Olaf to handle it when he's so domineering. His idea of diplomacy is trying to annex everything. Apparently one time he accidentally annexed an island that was already part of the mainlands. He annexed _his own country_ into his own country. And my mom's still getting used to talking to people instead of dragons-"

Even after five years, it wasn't always easy for her, though it'd gotten easier.

"Eret's good at talking to people," Astrid pointed out, "He's done well enough at some of the places we've sent him to be an ambassador."

"He's done fine but do we want to throw him at some foreign court with foreign ladies that might have different social rules about people _not_ having a different girlfriend at every court they're an ambassador to?"

Astrid stared at Hiccup for a moment. "And you just _really_ want to go, don't you."

"And I just _reeeally_ want to go," he admitted, thunking his head against the table and map. "I _so_ want to go."

Astrid laughed and shook her head. "Well, you _are_ the away chief. Things like this are your call."

"Yeah, well, with something this big," he said, lifting his head, "it's definitely something we need to agree on. If saying hello to any potential neighbors we have out there goes badly, they're going to keep saying hi back _right_ up to the shores of Berk. Possibly by shooting arrows at us."

Astrid crossed her arms and thought about it. "I don't like the idea of sending you alone."

"Sending me alone is better than sending me with the twins and Snotlout."

"Well, that's a given." She traced her finger along the drawing of the sea of storms. "But your mom could always go with you even if it wouldn't be good to send her on her own. Or Fishlegs."

"Toothless carrying two of us will tire him out faster and like I said, one dragon will probably be one too many as it is. The whole 'run for the hills' to-do, while admittedly more fun than it should be, has bitten us in the butt before. Remember Luk Tuk?"

Astrid sighed. "I remember Luk Tuk. Okay, fine, it'll be just you. But you should take a Terrible Terror with you and release it with a letter and a map once you've made landfall."

"A perfect compromise, there we go."

"Also, we don't know how far it is out there. What if you get stuck out in the middle of the ocean without any land to land on? The Brightclaws can travel really long distances. Fishlegs said the dragonologists he wrote to said they've gone out as far west as the mainlands. We don't know that Toothless has enough endurance to reach where they come from."

Toothless whined at Astrid indignantly. What an insult! Of course he could make the flight!

Hiccup thought about it and then raised his eyebrows as an idea occurred to him.

"The Brightclaws _can_ travel long distances. And they're really docile, docile enough they might be willing to give me and Toothless a ride. There are ones that migrate back out east regularly. Fishlegs thinks them flying our way is less that they're looking for mating grounds and more that they've widened their hunting range now that the way has been opened up. Hitching onto one of them might help Toothless can save up his energy and they have to be landing _somewhere_ out there."

Astrid sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose, a habit that had built up over time with her being chief.

"Provided you don't get eaten, that _almost_ sounds like a plan, but you're not leaving until you fix everything that needs fixing, you better eat and get enough rest before you go, and we need to put together a gift you can give any foreign leaders."

"Will do, okay, and for the last part I was thinking maybe a bag of some trade stuffs. Maybe some silver, some metalwork, some herbs, something carved. A nice mix of things from the area so they know what we have to offer as far as trade goes."

"That sounds like a plan."

Hiccup bounced up from the table again, caught up in his own excitement. "So, I'm going to go do that and -"

"Hiccup," Astrid said, crossing her arms. "You're forgetting something."

"What am I forgetting?"

"When's the last time you've eaten real food?"

"Oh yeah. Yep, gonna go do that." He pointed both his pointer fingers at Astrid and she rolled her eyes affectionately. "Good plan."

Then he could start taking care of everything and get ready for what was possibly going to be the most amazing trip of his life.

* * *

This was the worst trip of Aang's life.

Actually, that wasn't really true, he'd had many other worse trips. Like the one to the South Pole that'd led to him crashing into the ocean and taking a one hundred year nap. Or the trip away from Ba Sing Se after he'd gotten hit by lightning and actually died for a little bit. Or the one away from the Fire Temple after the winter solstice, when he realized he had to defeat the Firelord before the end of the summer. Or…

Okay, there were a lot of them. He'd had a lot of bad trips.

This wasn't the worst but Aang felt like his limbs were filled with molten metal as he lay there at the bottom of Appa's basket. _Molten_ metal, specifically, because his muscles were twitching and burning after the fights he'd gotten into. He wasn't even bothering holding onto the reins. Appa knew the way to the Fire Nation.

"Groooooooog," Appa rumbled up at him, checking on him.

"I'm okay, buddy. Not that hurt."

Just a little bit hurt. His clothes were what'd taken the brunt of it, burned and ripped in a few places. And he was really, _really_ exhausted, even if he wasn't hurt that badly.

That was why this was a bad trip even if it wasn't the worst. He was so tired. And things were going so badly, badly enough that he needed to make this trip at all. And if he had to make a trip anywhere, west wasn't the direction he wanted to go in, as much as he liked seeing Zuko.

South. He definitely would've preferred south. South was his favorite direction to go in nowadays.

As he looked at the stars passing overhead, he drew in a deep breath and let it out again, but none of the tension in his body went with it like he was hoping. There was too much weighing on his heart.

Like the news he had to bring to Zuko.

And the news he _wasn't_ going to tell Katara.

The former was why this trip was so miserable. ('Everything we've been building is falling apart' wasn't exactly a fun message to have to bring to someone.)

The latter was why he couldn't sleep right now even though he was exhausted. He just kept turning it over in his head, trying to figure out if what he'd been told was a lie. The spirit he'd heard it from wasn't a liar. He was a lot of things - a lot of horrible things - but not a liar. But he had to be sure before he told Katara. Absolutely, completely sure.

The sun was finally starting to rise which meant his chances of sleeping were next to nil. (His sleep was _so_ messed up right now). They were close to the Fire Nation now anyway and Appa was starting to fly lower so Aang slowly sat up, stretching out his aching arms, and peered down. Sure enough the capital city of the Fire Nation was rising up from down below.

Appa came in for a landing in the main courtyard of the palace and Aang hopped out before he'd even landed, sliding down Appa's side, his glider in hand. Several of Zuko's servants immediately stepped forward to welcome him.

"Avatar Aang, it's a pleasure to welcome you to the palace," said Zuko's servant Ming Na, with a polite bow. She looked concerned over his condition. "Are you injured? Do you require the palace physicians?"

"I'm not hurt. My clothes are just a mess. I need to see Zuko right away."

"Do you or your flying bison require anything to eat? I can have something prepared for you to take with you while you speak to him."

"I'm fine but can you get Appa something?" He was already guzzling water out of a decorative pond. Aang felt too guilty for letting him get that thirsty to redirect him somewhere more appropriate.

"Of course, Avatar Aang." Ming Na signaled for some other servants to take care of Appa and then started to lead him to Zuko. "Firelord Zuko is having breakfast. Right this way."

Ming Na led him through the hallways of the palace briskly, picking up on the urgency in his voice, until they reached Zuko's vast dining hall. This was his private dining hall, with a very long table capable of seating around twenty people. His other dining halls were even bigger. His hair was only loosely pulled back out of his face and he was wearing a set of dressing robes. He had stacks of papers and scrolls around him, and was eating a bowl of spicy noodles.

He looked just as exhausted as Aang, with circles under his eyes, and was clearly trying to eat as quickly as he could and work on something important simultaneously.

"Firelord Zuko, Avatar Aang is here to see you."

Zuko looked up, noodles hanging from his mouth and quickly swallowed. First thing was first...

"Aang, are you hurt?" he asked wide-eyed. "Do you need the palace physicians?"

"I'm not hurt, I just need a change of clothes."

"Okay, good," said Zuko, turning to Ming Na. "Can you see to it that the Avatar gets a change of clothes before he leaves?"

"Yes, Firelord Zuko," she said, bowing, and going off to take care of it. They didn't even need to take his measurements at this point. The Fire Nation capital was a frequent rest stop of the Avatar's due to all the times he needed to speak to Zuko, and many of those times he needed new clothes or other supplies.

"Okay, now that that's out of the way..." Now that he knew Aang wasn't hurt, Zuko turned, looked at Aang, moved his bowl of noodles aside, put down his chopsticks, and slammed his head into the table and groaned. If Aang was here, in that state, it only meant one thing. "The talks fell apart didn't they."

"Yep," said Aang, confirming that Zuko was totally right to knock his head against the table, and he even joined him, leaning his staff against the table and taking the seat closest to Zuko, knocking his head on the table, too.

"Rioting?"

"Yep."

"And the community leaders are refusing to cooperate, aren't they."

"Also yep."

Zuko groaned again. Aang put his arms on the table now, resting his chin on them. Zuko eventually sat up.

"You look exhausted."

"So do you."

"You look _more_ exhausted."

"I had to keep both sides from hurting each other without hurting _them_ for eight hours straight, all over the colony, until the guards got it under control. My arms and legs feel pretty much like those noodles you're eating."

Zuko put his elbow on his table and rested his head on his hand.

"We're going to have to intervene with more force but the last thing the Hu Xin provinces need is a military intervention. That'll just agitate the Earth Kingdom separatists even more. Any ideas?"

"Nope," said Aang, his eyelids fluttering like he was having trouble staying awake. That made Zuko's eyebrows knit together in worry.

He could tell Zuko was concerned right now. Aang knew he wasn't acting himself. It wasn't like him to just shut off like that, to not have ideas on how to fix things, to lay there looking almost hopeless.

"You're not okay right now," said Zuko. "Are you."

"I'm exhausted, extremely cranky, and I have no idea how to fix this. I've tried everything! I can't even get them in the same room together."

Zuko thought it over. "Then we're going to have a different kind of intervention. I'm going to go with you and we'll get the others to come help."

Aang glanced up at him, looking relieved.

"You don't need me to tell you that's okay," Zuko reminded him. "You don't need someone to tell you it's time for you to rely on your friends. You do realize that, right?"

"I know," said Aang. "It's just you're just as busy as me and you're already doing everything you can to fix this with me, and Sokka's helping with organizing the United Republic government and city planning for developing Republic City, and Toph has her Metalbending school, and Suki and the Kyoshi warriors are busy training the new mixed police forces at the other colonies, and Katara's been training the new waterbenders and that's _really_ important to her and -"

"And you're exhausted and struggling," said Zuko sharply. "It was going well for a while so that you didn't need us right there with you, but now it's not. We've hit a rough patch. That's going to keep happening for a long time. I know it probably sounds ridiculous coming from me -"

"Only a little. Teeny bit," Aang teased.

Zuko just rolled his eyes at him over that. "-but sometimes you'll be able to go it alone and sometimes you won't. If you can't, that's okay." More sharply, he said, "Stop waiting until people are _setting your clothes on fire_ to ask for help."

"Okay, it's definitely a little late," Aang acknowledged, looking down at his pants, "but I need help."

"Go get the others and bring them back here. We'll think of something. I need to talk to my generals in the meantime."

"Your generals?" Aang asked with concern.

"Not about going on the offensive. About national security. I know the Earth Kingdom on the whole doesn't want a new war anymore than we do, but I have concerns about these radical elements getting into the Fire Nation and hurting civilians."

"Why are you worried about that?" Aang asked.

Zuko drew in a deep breath, knowing this was something Aang didn't want to hear.

"We had a small group of separatists that tried to damage the Jiang Hui dam yesterday. Fortunately, they were stopped by the guards before they did too much damage. My guards are investigating it right now but we think they got into the country by pretending to be merchants. It's just like the attacks we've had around some of the colonies and around the construction in Republic City."

Aang knocked his head against the table again.

"We can fix this," Zuko assured him, "It'll be hard but if we stop the conflict in the colonies it'll damage their power base and make it impossible for them to organize. They need the support of the common people to function; it's where they draw resources and manpower."

"It's just been a long…" Day? Week? Month? Couple of months? Year? Years? "A long time since I've had a break."

"Go home, rest up for a day or two, get Katara and the others, come back here, and we'll work on this together. We need to intervene in person but you have time for a day off at least."

"Okay." Aang felt at least a little bit of relief but then he usually did when talking to Zuko like this. For most of these conflicts, the two of them were in it together, and every time one of them was frustrated or hopeless the other was there to bolster them up.

"Get going. The sooner you get to the south pole the sooner you can rest."

"I really need new pants first," said Aang, looking down at his burned and tattered clothes again.

"Get new pants from my servants and _then_ get going."

* * *

"Just push and pull, push and pull. Now, to do a water whip all you have to do is make that movement sharper. It still has to flow the same way but you do it faster and then...extend."

Katara demonstrated the movement and the girl imitated it. A whipcrack sounded in the air and the girl smiled.

"I did it! I did it!"

"Very good, Anaya!" Katara said encouragingly. "Now, keep practicing for a few minutes while I help Siluk."

Siluk was no longer the little boy running around underfoot in the village that he used to be. His long black hair often hung in his face and he had a perpetually surly expression. He looked devastated as he kept trying to do the water whip and whipped himself in the face yet again. He tossed all his water back into his pot.

"I just can't do it!" he said as Katara walked up. "It's way too hard."

He looked around at the other waterbenders as they practiced. Most of them seemed to be doing better than him, but what he hadn't noticed was that the reason they were was because Katara had worked with them, too.

"I'm never going to be as good as everyone else."

"You know, I was frustrated like that a few times, too, when I was learning," Katara said, drawing the water out of Siluk's pot again. She started doing a cooperative exercise with him, one of the ones she used to help her students improve their basic forms, a simple game of catch, full of pulling and pushing so they could work on shifting their weight. "I tried _so_ hard to learn the water whip and I kept failing - I kept hitting myself in the face every time I tried."

"Really?" he said, sounding as if he didn't believe it.

"Mmm hmm. I was trying to learn it from a Waterbending Scroll so I could teach Aang and of course he figured it out it _instantly_ while I was struggling with it. There was a lot I was able to teach him but since he was the Avatar, he was a natural at certain things. I was so jealous that I even yelled at him over it even though he didn't deserve it." She leaned into her movements to show him the right way to do it and he started to imitating the movement unconsciously. "Even the best Benders struggle with certain techniques and for some Benders it can take a long time to learn, but as long as you keep trying and keep practicing you'll eventually get where you want to be."

"I guess so."

"Trust me," she reassured him. "Remember how Sokka couldn't hit the broad side of an igloo with his club before we left to help Aang?"

"Yeah, he was really terrible! And he's really good at fighting now," Siluk said, mulling it over as he took control of the water again.

Sokka sometimes helped teach the nonbenders how to fight whenever he was at the Pole, alongside the members of their sister tribe that'd settled in the South Pole to help them all rebuild. One thing that was a huge focus was on teaching everyone to Waterbend and fight. Everyone hoped that the peace could last but after a hundred years of devastation because of the Fire Nation, everyone still wanted to help the Southern Tribe get in a position that they could better defend themselves in the future, to safeguard their growing prosperity as they rebuilt their tribe.

Katara stepped out of the way, standing next to him to show him the stances again. "You've just got to shift your weight through the stances."

He tried again and didn't quite get it but almost did, then again, and after the third try, he finally got it.

"Yes! Yes, I did it!"

"See? Don't be so down on yourself, okay?" said Katara. "It might take some time and hard work but you can do anything you set your mind to, and I'm here to help you with anything you have trouble with."

"Thanks, Sifu Katara!"

Katara clapped her hands together loudly.

"Okay, class, we're done for the day. Water back in your pots. I want you back here the same time as usual in the morning."

"Thank you, Sifu Katara!" most of the class said in unison, bowing to her, before they all scattered to go home or play for the day. As she started to walk away from the training grounds, she saw her grandfather standing near the entrance, watching her.

He had a smile on his face.

"You did very well today," Pakku said.

"I thought you said you'd be busy all day with the Council."

With the growth of the Tribe, a few things needed to change, and Pakku, her father, and other elders were working out ways to possibly reorganize the running of the tribe.

"We resolved a few things a little faster than we thought."

"Did you want to take over class again tomorrow?"

"No."

Now she was confused.

"The day after that?"

"Katara, I know you might still need my help sometimes, because learning to teach is something any teacher has to do alongside learning to Waterbend, but you've come such a long way. And more and more I want to spend more time with your Gran-gran in our old age. Maybe it's time you take over teaching the class completely."

Katara's eyes went wide. "Are you sure I'm ready?"

"You're a Waterbending Master, Katara, and one of the most talented Waterbenders I've ever seen! And you've done a wonderful job assisting me in training the class - and an even more wonderful job taking over on the days I can't. Watching you teach today has made me realize there isn't much else left to teach you - not even about teaching itself."

Katara held a hand to her chest. "I - I don't know what to say."

"How about you don't say anything and come over here and give your grandfather a hug?" Pakku said with amusement.

Katara ran over and gave him a huge hug. "Thank you so much, Pakku. I'm so honored. I'll do my best to make you proud!"

"You've made me proud already, ever since I trained you. And I'll still be here whenever you need me. If there are any questions you have about instructing them or anything you have difficulty with, I'll always be here to help - but I don't think you'll need to rely on me all that much anymore. I've been away so much that you've already been teaching your students more than I have."

'Your students,' he said. Katara' heart fluttered with delight as she realized that's what they were. _Her_ students.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm due for dinner and your gran-gran will have my head if I'm late."

"Tell gran-gran I'll be over tomorrow."

With that, Pakku walked away, leaving Katara nearly bouncing in place. Her class. It was her class now. _Her_ students! All her own. She couldn't wait to tell Aang and her brother -

As if on cue she heard a loud "hrrrrrrrrrooooog" echoing in from the distance and she saw Appa coming towards the settlement. A few people were already gathering as they so often did, including the gaggles of little kids that always came running over whenever Aang showed up. Her heart, which was already fluttering with delight, felt like it was going to fly right out of her chest now, and she ran over to where Appa was coming in for a landing.

"Aang, you're back!" she cried out delightedly.

Except Aang didn't jump out of Appa's basket after Appa landed. The crowd started craning their necks in concern.

"Aang?"

Worried now that maybe Aang was hurt or unconscious, Katara climbed up into the basket and found him -

Snoring softly, curled up into a sleepy little ball.

She didn't know whether to laugh at the fact he'd slept through coming back to the Pole or be concerned that he was that sleepy at all.

"Aang, you're home, it's time to wake up," she said, amused, brushing a hand against his cheek. "If only so I can get you in bed so you can go _back t_ o sleep."

There was no way she could carry him now the way she could back when they'd fought against the Fire Nation. He'd had a massive growth spurt back when he was fifteen and sixteen and now he was only a few inches shy of being six feet tall. It was starting to look like he might wind up a whole head taller than her in the long run.

The gentle touch and her words did absolutely nothing to wake him up so now she poked his shoulder.

"Aang!" she called out.

"M'up, where'sa fire?" he blurted out, shooting up so fast his head almost hit her in the chin, flailing wildly. "Can't sign the treaty for them, I need new pants."

He blinked sleepily, clearly very very out of it. Then he narrowed his eyes at Katara, peering at her more closely.

"Katara, what are you doing at the banquet? Only Bosco is invited."

Now Katara laughed out loud. "Oh, you are _so_ going right back to bed after this. Come on," she said, tugging on his arm.

He blinked his eyes again and it seemed like he was finally alert, as he looked around and it occurred to him that he was surrounded by snow and ice now.

"Oh, I'm here."

"Yes, you're here. Up," she said, tugging on his arm.

He rubbed at his eyes with his hand and then it occurred to him that hey, he was home, and hey, Katara was right there, that was good.

"And you're here!" he said enthusiastically, hugging her tightly now. "Of course you're here. Man, I'm tired."

Katara hugged her boyfriend back just as enthusiastically, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He kissed her back just as enthusiastically.

"Yes, you're here. Yes, I'm here. And you really, _really_ need to get a good night's sleep. So, up. Get up."

"No no no, we really need to get going."

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"The talks between the community leaders in the Xu Hin provinces did _not_ work out the way me and Zuko hoped so he told me to gather everyone up. We can't do a military intervention because it'd just agitate the Earth Kingdom separatists so he figured we should all go in as a small group and see if we can work out a solution."

"Well, it's late, and I had a long day training my students." Her students. _Hers!_ "And you look exhausted. Did Zuko say we needed to leave right away?"

She trusted Zuko's judgment on these things more than Aang's anymore, because Aang was pushing himself way too hard. Aang froze for a moment, the way he did when he was caught in a fib, which he sometimes did before he even told the fib.

"It's pretty urgent," he said noncommittally. "I mean, he didn't say we had to leave _right_ away, but -"

"So what _did_ he say?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"He said that I should maybe take a day or two to rest but -"

There it was.

"Come on. Up," she said, finally succeeding in dragging him to his feet, and she jumped out of the basket and slid down Appa's side. She briefly gave Appa a little hug and patted the fur on his head as she looked up to speak to Aang. "You can try all you want to leave today but it doesn't exactly work if I won't leave with you, now does it."

Aang sighed as he jumped over Appa's side, Airbending to cushion his fall. "Okay, okay, I'll take it easy for a little while. But we really, _really_ can't take that long."

Aang was immediately mobbed by the children there, who tackled him to the ground so quickly it almost looked like a wolf taking down a fox antelope. Far from being upset by it, he cried out in delight, "Hey guys! Wow, Oki, you're getting so big, I think you're an inch taller than when I last saw you!"

He probably had grown an inch since Aang had last seen him. He'd been in a few times since he'd seen him last but he was often in and out so fast that he didn't have a chance to see most of the Tribe, just Katara herself.

The thought of it brought a pang to Katara's chest. She was doing okay whenever Aang was gone - it helped that she had her own important things to focus on - but it always stung whenever she was reminded of how infrequently she saw him and of how short the time was each time he stayed. Usually, it was the same thing each time: she'd make sure he actually ate, they'd talk for several hours straight, trying to cram as much conversation in the time they had that they could. Then sometimes they slept together (always nice) or he'd just fall asleep (something he always needed, definitely not as nice) and then it was a few kisses in the morning and he was on his way again.

It stunk. It wasn't really Aang's fault that it stunk but it stunk like a skunk fish.

After he gently shook off many small children, who then went to play with Appa (he was a good sport and used his tail to help them climb into his basket and slide down his side), she took Aang by the hand and led him towards her lodge. The little hut of ice and animal skins she'd had the last time he'd visited had gotten an upgrade since she last saw him.

"Whoa, _that's_ new," he said.

"Nice, isn't it? Now that we don't have to worry about the Fire Nation destroying our villages over and over, we can make more permanent buildings. The Northern fleet has been helping us bring in lumber from the Earth Kingdom and the building supplies Zuko keeps donating from the Fire Nation."

She led him inside, taking off her heavy parka and leaving it on a little wooden chest near the door, moving the skins at the door to cover it again after he ducked his way in.

"Wooow, it's got a wooden floor and everything." He let go of her hand and looked around for a little bit, then took off his shoes and foot wraps to hold his feet near the fire and warm up his toes.

"I'll start reheating the soup from lunch," she said, going over into the little kitchen area and stoking the cooking fire. "And then we'll get some food into you and then we can talk. There's so much I want to tell you! We've managed to build so many things while you were gone."

They'd talk about everything, the way they always did. She could barely contain her excitement over what Pakku had told her, but she decided to hold it in until they'd both eaten.

"Sounds good to me!" said Aang, grinning at her, and then he started to nose around curiously, his attention temporarily captured by the new lodge.

Her new home wasn't that big, just a small one-room little lodge with a sleeping pallet on the floor covered in arctic hen-down quilts (a compromise because he thought animal skins were icky but at least if the feathers were inside the quilt he couldn't _see_ them), a fire pit in the middle for keeping the whole thing warm, and another area with a cooking fire and a small little table with cushions to sit at for meals. But it was cozy and much more extravagant than what she and Sokka'd had while growing up.

The stone fire pit had a square area set into the floor around it, with wooden benches that had storage spaces under the seats and after warming his feet for a minute he started to lift up the seats and root around curiously.

"So this is where all our stuff is."

Sometimes he was like a hog-monkey with how his curiosity completely took over and he started getting into things. She had to suppress a laugh as he accidentally fell into one of the storage spaces head first, his rear end sticking up in the air.

"Ow."

Okay, he was wide awake now, clearly, and he was probably hungry but...she was a little hungry too, she thought, eyeing his rear end wiggling as he tried to pull himself out.

He had, in the last five years, grown in ways that were...interesting. He'd gotten taller and his voice had grown deeper, even if it hadn't lost any of the playful cadence it'd always had. His face had gotten a little more angular and his smile had changed to project far more confidence than innocence, even if he hadn't lost any of his previous humility. He'd also put on quite a bit of muscle, even if he was still lanky.

The most infuriating part of all of that was that he was _completely oblivious_ to how attractive he'd grown, which meant, quite often, that he did things that caught her attention without realizing he was doing it.

Like accidentally getting into a position where his very well-toned rear end was wiggling in the air, for instance. Things like that.

Biting her lip, she put the pot of soup back on the table. Now was a bad time to put it on the fire again when she might not be able to check on it for a little while.

"The best part of the lodge is over there," she said in a faux enthusiastic voice, "do you want to see it?"

Aang successfully extricated himself and looked around.

"Where?"

She pointed at the sleeping pallet. "Past the bed. On the other side. Trust me, it'll be your favorite part."

He walked over and knelt on her-really, it was their- bed, looking past it, poking at the wooden floor, expecting to find something interesting, like some kind of secret compartment. She eyed his rump again as he knelt there.

"What's here? I don't see it."

That was when she went in for the kill, lunging and grabbing him by the shoulder to spin him around and press him down onto the bed. While he was still reeling in surprise, she straddled him and pressed a very forceful kiss to his lips. For a moment he flailed slightly in surprise and then she felt his lips move as his mouth curled into a smile and he kissed her back just as passionately, hands sliding up to her waist.

When she finally pulled away to look at him he was smiling at her.

"So, _there_ it is. Yeah, I think this _is_ definitely my favorite part of the lodge."

"It had better be," she said, sliding her hands over his chest and then sliding his robes down off his one shoulder.

"I wanted to talk, though," he admitted with a pout. "What's been happening while I've been gone? How are your classes going? What's -"

She cut that off with another long kiss. She didn't want to talk. At least not right now. She definitely wanted to talk _after,_ but definitely not right now.

"Lots of new buildings, dad and Pakku are helping put together a council to help run the tribe since it's growing so much, and Master Pakku wants me to take over teaching the new Waterbenders - which is really exciting!" she enthused. "So we're going to be excited about it _later_."

Aang apparently couldn't stop himself from being excited about it now, because his face lit up, as he said, "That's great, Katara! You're already so goo-"

She cut that off with another kiss, before pulling away to look him in the eyes.

"Like I said, we'll be excited about that later." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Right now there are other things I want you to be excited about."

Aang raised both eyebrows. "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

Some time later, after they made the warmth of the lodge significantly warmer together, Katara lay there with her limbs tangled up with Aang's. After having their fun together, they'd talked for a while. He was half-asleep already and still trying to talk to her, still desperately clinging to every last shred of consciousness so he could catch up.

"You really are already teaching them mostly by yourself anyway," he said, yawning in the middle of the sentence, "and doing a really good job. Some of them are learning faster than I did!"

And that was saying something, considering how much of a natural he'd been with Waterbending. As the Avatar, mastering most of the elements had been easy after so many lifetimes of mastering them before. For her students, however, most of them were only just starting out and they were picking it up very quickly.

"Pakku's helped so much with it. He hasn't been teaching me Waterbending anymore - he says I just need practice like any master, not instruction, but he _has_ been teaching me how to teach."

She squirmed away from Aang to get up and his arms tightened into an octopus-like grip.

"Noooo," he said in a little, high-pitched voice.

She laughed. "We both need to eat." She pressed a kiss to his forehead and teased, "So I take it this means we're not leaving right away now?"

That made his eyes pop right open and Katara immediately regretted saying it. He tried to sit up.

"You're right, we really should get going if you're up for the trip tonight, because -"

She shoved him right back down.

"How about we make a deal? We're both eating and if you can actually keep your eyes open after that, we'll leave for the Earth Kingdom to get Sokka and Toph tonight. If not, we're going to sleep."

"Okay, it's a deal," he said, confident he'd manage to do that.

Katara pulled on her robes, completely confident he wouldn't manage to do that because she was going to take her good old time while doing everything, and went over to reheat the soup.

"So what exactly are the separatists doing that's making it so hard to stop them?" she asked as she set the pot over the cooking fire again.

Aang rubbed sleepily at his eyes. "It's a combination of things. They keep attacking Fire Nation businesses and cultural buildings. And they do things to stir the pot with everyone in general. Like they have these newspapers they print and give out for free that get a lot of people on both sides riled up. The people of Earth Kingdom descent get all angry about things and the people of Fire Nation descent feel attacked by what's written in them, because they claim they're trying really hard to make things work, and then people get into arguments and fights, and sometimes it'll explode into riots that have to be calmed down-"

"All the mixed families must be having a hard time right now."

"Oh yeah, people are sometimes treating them badly now, with both sides calling them traitors," Aang said. "It's not right. They're the ones that are most comfortable with everyone living in peace. It's just like Yu Dao, where they feel attacked by both sides."

"That's terrible," said Katara, thinking about how grateful she was that she and Aang didn't have to deal with something like that.

They sometimes had problems they had to work through because of being from different cultures but it was so much easier without that kind of conflict going on around them. It was just between the two of them and quite a few parts of their culture were complementary, anyway. For instance, Aang loved spending time with the rest of the tribe. They'd accepted him very openly and she could tell that even though it would never replace his own people that he liked being a part of something again.

"Part of the problem is it was one of the most recently established colonies. Firelord Azulon captured the territory early in the war but the Fire Nation didn't send colonists right away."

"Unlike Yu Dao, where they had more time to integrate, because it's the oldest colony."

"Exactly. Back when we were moving the newest colonies back to the Fire Nation, we might have been able to take care of it by seeing if the Fire Nation colonials were willing to go back," he said blearily, "but now that we've committed to the United Republic we can't do that."

Good, he sounded like he was already almost nodding off again. The soup was ready, though so she had to get him up for that, at least.

"Soup's ready."

Aang yawned hugely again and squirmed his way back into his pants, crawling over and sitting on one of the benches around the firepit. He reached for the bowl Katara handed him and started shoveling soup in his mouth greedily.

"It has those leeks you like from Kyoshi Island and I think I finally found a way to make stewed sea prunes that you'll like," she said enthusiastically.

She hadn't known he was coming but she'd been trying out a new recipe ahead of time anyway. However, Aang suddenly pulled a face and seemed to be keeping the soup in his mouth without swallowing. He looked stricken, as if he had no idea what to do next.

"You're going to spit that into the fire the second my back's turned, aren't you," she said dryly.

Aang shook his head frantically, still not swallowing. Then, deciding it was probably wrong to lie, he shrugged in a way that suggested, 'eh, probably.'

She rolled her eyes. "Go ahead."

Aang opened his mouth and spat the sea prune into the firepit with a 'bleh,' and then looked apologetic.

"It's the texture, not the taste. I really like the rest of it, honest! All the other vegetables in it are good," he said, shoveling some of the other vegetables in his mouth to show he didn't mind those.

"I'm going to find a way to get you to like stewed sea prunes eventually, mark my words."

"I could live for another hundred years and you probably wouldn't be able to," Aang said, after swallowing, grinning. Then his expression changed, very suddenly, to one that was more thoughtful - and maybe even troubled. He stared at the fire for a moment, lost in thought.

Her eyebrows knit together in concern. "Is something wrong?"

He looked back up at her with a start. "Nothing. I'm just zoning out, I guess."

It seemed almost like he was hiding something but he wouldn't do that, would he? After all the times he'd gotten in trouble with her in the past for lying or hiding something, he'd long since decided that honesty was the best policy. While he sometimes told the odd fib it was mostly silly things, like him trying not to insult her cooking. He didn't ever hide anything serious from her anymore.

She decided that he was probably just really tired. Sure enough, as he ate, he started to have trouble keeping his eyes open.

When his bowl was empty (empty of everything but the sea prunes, at least) she took it out of his hands.

"Why don't you go lie down for just a few minutes while I clean up?"

"Just a few," he said, crawling back over and curling up under the blankets, "but then we really have to get -" he broke off to yawn again. "-going. You can tell me more about your students on the way."

"I'd like that. You should see how far Anaya's come along. Remember how little she was when you met her?"

"Mmm hmm," Aang said.

He was trying so hard to stay awake to listen that it almost broke her heart.

"She's already got the water whip down perfectly."

"That's good," he said, his voice slurring slightly

"Most of them managed to learn it today in class. Siluk is still having a little trouble but he managed a perfect one at least once. I just need to keep giving him some personalized attention and I think he'll do fine."

"That's great, you're really good at...things."

Oh, he was so far gone he was just giving vague compliments now. She decided to play with him a little.

"And Nasak grew a second head. It sings songs and the songs make pink arctic hippos appear out of thin air."

"Good for him," Aang said, clearly drifting off now.

She had to hold in her laughter as she finished washing their bowls. Then she walked over and crawled back into bed with him. He curled up against her unconsciously, burrowing his face in her neck.

"We really have to go," he muttered against her neck.

"Sssh," she said gently, reaching up her hand to gently rake her nails against his scalp, not hard enough to hurt, just enough that he'd feel a light scritchy scritchy. It helped him fall asleep. "Go to sleep. We can take care of it tomorrow. It's okay."

That finally seemed to be enough, her telling him it was okay.

"Love you," he said fuzzily.

She felt him breathe in deep and when he let it out, she felt the tension finally melt out of his body.

"I love you, too."

She pressed a kiss to his forehead, right on his arrow, and as she held him she felt tension she hadn't known was there melt out of her own body.

Tomorrow. Everything could wait until tomorrow. Because as she looked at him, he looked pale to her, almost translucent in the pale light of the fire, like something was draining the color out of him.

She didn't know what to do to help with it, and that scared her, because one thing was suddenly very clear: the world was draining him dry.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Plot beckons.

* * *

 **Here Be Dragons**

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

* * *

By the time Hiccup eaten, had talked more with Fishlegs over the Brightclaws' migration patterns, and had worked on every problem that'd been put in front him (which required drawing lots of schematics), he was pretty exhausted. So much that he didn't even have the energy for his evening flight with Toothless. That was fine with Toothless since the dragon was just as tired as Hiccup was.

That meant that he'd only managed a quick hug and a short conversation with his mother before washing up (he'd needed it desperately) and crashing for the night.

The next morning, however, was all theirs to spend together.

"How many eggs d'you want, Hiccup?" asked Gobber, holding his frying pan attachment over the firepit.

Well, the morning was theirs _and_ Gobber's.

"I'll have two, Gobber, thanks."

Gobber didn't come by every day but he still swung by for breakfast sometimes or his mother would sometimes chat with him at the forge whenever she was home and not traveling herself. Hiccup was always glad to see it. The two of them were lonely with his father being gone - and with him away so often, if he was perfectly honest with himself - and he could tell they took a great deal of solace in their friendship with each other.

And they certainly enjoyed meddling in his personal business together.

"Sooo," said his mother as she sat with him. She was cutting his hair for him with a little knife, putting the discarded hair in a bowl to throw away. "Did you meet anyone nice while you were away?"

"Oh, here we go," Hiccup said and his mother laughed.

The only way this could've been worse was if Toothless was there to be amused at his discomfort, but his dragon was out eating breakfast at the feeding troughs.

"You and Astrid have been broken up for a while now," Gobber pointed out, as the eggs sizzled over the fire. "And you've been doing all that traveling. Is it any wonder that we're wondering if a pretty face has caught yer eye?"

"'Hey Hiccup, welcome home, let's totally ignore any of the interesting things you have to say about where you've traveled or the dragons you've seen, no, let's focus on your nonexistent love life because that's just _so_ interesting and also we're nosy.' That's you. That's you guys. That's my impression of you guys."

"Fishlegs already told me everything about the Brightclaws while you were working last night - and it's all very exciting!" said Valka. "I'm planning on flying south with them to see where they're roosting and Eret's going to come along to help me with the map since we still have territory to add down that way. But I want to know what's happening with you."

It was somewhat remarkable how his mother and Eret had gone from tense distrust to actually getting along, but over time his mother hard started to take great interest in exposing him more and more to everything that was wonderful about dragons, taking relish in his transformation from someone that'd hurt them in the past to someone that cared about them and wanted to make up for all he'd done to hurt them. .

She was taking an interest in a lot of people now in general, which was good. For a while around the beginning, she'd had trouble adjusting, spending more of her time with the dragons than people, but she'd relaxed over time. It was almost like watching a dragon learning to trust people.

Her favorite person to take interest in was Hiccup, naturally, and her saying she wanted to know what was happening with him brought on the warm squishy feeling in his stomach it always did when his mother fussed over him. After twenty years of going without it, he was pretty sure he'd never be tired of it, of her taking an interest in his life - and of him taking an interest in hers. She'd flown so many places and learned so many things about dragons that she always had new secrets to reveal, just like she'd promised. After five years of having her back in his life, it was still a delight every day that he'd never be tired of.

And it helped with the ache of losing his father, the one that was not as bad as it once was, but still there. He was pretty sure he did the same for her.

"Okay, let's see, Toothless and I trashed an Outcast ship on the way to the Green Isles - just for funsies, you know how it is - and then when I got there, ol' Ironfist chucked an axe at my head even though Toothless and I were fifteen feet up."

"He seemed pretty keen on starting a war with us," said Gobber.

"He was, at first. Even with teaching them how to get along with the dragons, he was scared, I think, of the fact we've got such a large group of them set up for Berk's defense. Even if they're learning to trust their own dragons, they were a little wary of trusting us people."

"Well, that is the thing of it, isn't it?" his mother pointed. "It's not the dragon to worry about -"

"It's the people, I know." Good dragons controlled by bad people did bad things. "They were all settled in with them but still nervous about the idea of us, but I got him talking and it all went fine. Once I made it clear that we're looking for peace with surrounding tribes, and at most we wanted to open trade but were otherwise okay with leaving them alone if they leave us alone, he relaxed a bit. He signed the treaty and was open to the trade agreement, though he wants to keep it limited at first. They don't want us showing up that often near their islands."

"Better than being shot at with arrows," Gobber pointed out with a shrug.

"Better than being shot at with arrows," Hiccup repeated. "I'll take it."

"I don't know how you do it sometimes," tutted his mother. She'd finished cutting his hair and was braiding a few braids into it now. "Dealing with these people when they're so set in their ways."

"Eeeeh, they're not that bad. The key thing to always remember is that they're usually worried about the same things we are. Safety, having enough to eat, lasting through the winter... " Hiccup shrugged. "When it came down to it, Ironfist was just worried about his people the same as Astrid and I are. The same as dad always was."

"So back to the previous subject -" Gobber said, piling the eggs onto a plate.

Hiccup laughed at his persistence, taking his plate into his hands, shoveling eggs into his mouth.

In between chewing he said, "You just won't quit, will you? No, no, I didn't meet anyone." A pause. "Not in the Green Isles anyway. There was, uh, this...kinda handsome fella when we stopped off in Hopeless that was pretty chatty but I wasn't able to stay long."

There. He said it. The tribe generally didn't care about things like that. What kind of barbarians judged other people over who they took interest in? But it still felt strange to say. It was a new change for him, only brought on by exposure to other islands and other young men that weren't Tuffnut, Snotlout, Fishlegs, or Eret (who was very handsome but definitely not his type). And it wasn't exactly common, and the only person he knew that took an interest in the same sex was Gobber. And it was _just_ the same sex. He knew that happened sometimes, and on Berk they never judged even thought it was unusual, but he'd never heard of anyone that was interested in men _and_ woman.

"Is that so?" said Gobber, raising an eyebrow, as he removed his frying pan attachment and put on the one that had a fork.

Hiccup felt his mother's hands briefly pause in his hair but then she went right back to braiding.

"Well, of course he was interested, with how handsome you are."

Hiccup immediately relaxed.

"There was this, uh, really pretty girl my age in the Green Isles, too, but she seemed more freaked out by the whole riding on a dragon thing - which I can safely say is pretty much a dealbreaker for me," he said, with great amusement.

"I've said it before, our way of life isn't for everyone," said Gobber. "Even though a lot of our neighbors have learned to live in peace with their dragons it's still most likely going to take them a good while live _comfortably_ with them. It's a very different thing."

"Yep. They're getting there, though. They were already setting up feeding troughs in the Green Isles and I saw a few kids with Terrible Terrors already. They don't seem to trust them enough to ride them yet, but they're at least feeding them and seem to coaxing them into doing things like setting their fires for them."

"What are you planning to do now that the storm wall went away?" his mother asked him. "Fishlegs said you told him it was completely gone."

"Well, Astrid and I think we need to be proactive there. The Brightclaws are coming from somewhere and there could be people out there. The last thing we need is some outsiders showing up, getting freaked out by the people living with dragons, and starting something with us or another tribe. Sooo we decided we should send a dragon rider out to see where the Brightclaws are coming from and see if anyone's out there."

"Wild guess here," said Gobber, waving around his fork hand, "but that someone's going to be you, isn't it?"

Hiccup felt his mother gently bat his shoulder. "But you just got back!"

Hiccup turned where he sat to face her. "I know, I know, but we figure it should only be one rider and one dragon so they don't get freaked out, and you know I'm the best one to do it. I have the most experience with diplomacy, I'm the one that gets the final say on our peace treaties and trade agreements." He gave her a crooked little smile. "I promise I'll be back before the next snowfall and then Toothless and I will be grounded for a while, okay? It's miserable traveling during the winter frost, anyway, so I'll spend a few months at home."

"I don't like the idea of you going alone," she said, her eyebrows knitting in concern.

"It'll be fine, mom. I won't be alone, I'll have Toothless. If anything gets dicey, Toothless and I will just make a run for it." He raised his eyebrows at her. "And then after the winter's over maybe you can go back there with me. If there is a new continent out there, even if people live there, it'll still be amazing to explore it and meet whoever's there. Once I've made contact so we know they won't, y'know, toss axes at us from fifteen feet below, you can come with me and we can see whatever's out there and add it to our maps."

That idea seemed to make her very happy. "If those Brightclaws are any indication, we could be looking at quite a few new species."

"Exactly. Me and you, we'll do what we've always wanted to do but just haven't had the time for the last few years. Find every last species, see everything there is to see. With everything going so well with our neighboring tribes and the rest of the world opened up to us we can do that now."

She smiled a bright smile at him, then bit her lip, and hugged him close. "I would love that, Hiccup."

"Me too, mom. Don't worry, everything will go fine and then I'll be back for winter, and then we can go back together. What could go wrong?"

"Basically, everything," Gobber pointed out wisely.

"Ssssh, don't ruin the moment," Hiccup said to Gobber as he kept hugging his mother, "we're having a moment right now. I love these."

His mother's laughter rang in his ear - one of his favorite sounds in the world.

* * *

After Katara had - reluctantly - arranged for Pakku to take over her class, she and Aang spent the whole trip to pick up Toph chattering with each other. They didn't even need to set down near her Metalbending school to pick her up, she heard them passing overhead and launched herself up to Appa with a rocky outcropping like she'd done in times past.

"Toph, it's so good to see you!" Katara said, as she and Aang gave her a giant hug together.

"Katara. Twinkletoes. Where are we going and who needs to get hit?" Toph asked cheerfully.

"Hopefully nobody," said Aang to the latter.

"But probably somebody," Toph said, "or else you wouldn't have picked me up."

"Did you even tell your students where you're going?" Katara said, looking down over the edge of the basket at her school.

"Eh," she said, as if it didn't really matter, picking her nose.

They explained the entire situation on the way to pick up Sokka. He was at the site of what they hoped would be a new city. It was Aang and Zuko's idea, establishing a city in the Earth Kingdom where people from all three nations could live in harmony. They could make it a place where people _chose_ to live among the people of the other nations. After the success at some of the colonies like Yu Dao, the Earth King had agreed to the plan and they decided to work on the development and growth of one of the former Fire Nation colonies.

Sokka was there helping with some of the city planning. Aang checked in with him occasionally and whenever he needed to move back and forth between there and the Southern Water tribe, Aang gave him a lift.

He had spotted them while talking to some of the workers that were building a large building - firebenders and earthbenders working together - and was already running towards towards them before Appa came in for a landing on the street.

"Hi Sokka!" said Aang, hopping off of Appa and giving Sokka a hug.

"What's going on? Why are Toph and Katara with you?" Sokka asked, hugging Aang back but looking worried.

"Aang and Zuko have been having a lot of trouble with the Hu Xin provinces and they need our help," Katara explained.

"What, you mean you and Zuko haven't finished with that whole world peace thing yet?" Sokka asked Aang. "What's taking you?"

Katara rolled her eyes and gently whapped her brother upside the head.

"Good to see you too, Katara," said Sokka, and then he pulled his sister into a warm hug, lifting her right up off the ground. Even though she'd just whapped him, she gave him a giant hug back.

Sokka swooped in to hug Toph as well. She didn't hug him back but at least gave him a little grin to know it was okay and that she wasn't going to whomp him for it.

"Toph, I feel like I haven't seen you in forever! It's been at least six months now. How's it going with your school?"

"Eh."

"So where to next?" asked Sokka. "Is Zuko meeting up with us?"

"He had to take care of something with his generals. Home defense stuff. Hopefully, all that's taken care of by now. He wanted me to bring you back to the Fire Nation," Aang said,

"Let me go get my stuff and tell Minho where I'm going," said Sokka.

They all climbed back into Appa's basket. Sokka ran off and came back with his boomerang strapped to his back, his pack, and -

"Is that your space sword?" Aang asked, wide-eyed.

"It is!" Sokka squealed excitedly. "I took a field trip to Wulong Forest to look for it again. Tenth time's the charm!"

He hugged it to himself. "Oh, space word, I'm never letting anything come between us again."

Then he strapped it to his back and climbed up into Appa's basket.

Aang grabbed the reins and called out ,"Yip yip!"

"So this problem with the provinces - it's the same group that's been messing up what we're trying to build here, right?" Sokka asked, leaning back against the edge of Appa's basket.

"We think so. It's actually pretty bad," Aang said. "The Earth King is still supporting us but these separatists...they're not like a normal army. A lot of their support comes from the population itself. It's going to be really hard to fix this because it's not like there's an army to fight."

"Hey, whatever's going on, we'll have the whole gang back together, right? Minus Suki since she's doing her training thing," Sokka said, "How hard could it be?"

* * *

"Fixing this is going to be one of the hardest things we've ever done," said Zuko to his friends. "And you know I don't say that lightly."

Sokka was already regretting what he'd said earlier. Definitely regretting it. Why had he tempted fate? After Aang took them to the Fire Nation, they'd all greeted Zuko warmly and he'd led them into one of his war rooms. It was far less intimidating than it had probably been in the past, partly because it'd fallen into disuse and partly because rather than sitting in a great throne behind a wall of fire he'd simply joined them by sitting on one of the cushions at the table where many maps and papers were spread out, looking just as frustrated as they all felt.

"Isn't that a little dramatic?" asked Katara.

"No," said Zuko bluntly.

"Nope," Aang put in. "I don't think you guys understand. This is some really deeply ingrained hatred we're dealing with and while that hate isn't different than some of what we've seen, the way they're expressing it is different. These people are radical in a way we've never seen before."

"These extremists have already made an attempt to strike at the heart of the Fire Nation. A group of them snuck into the Fire Nation under the guise of being merchants and tried to destroy the Jiang Hui dam with earthbending," said Zuko. "The guards stopped them in time but the destruction of the dam would've wiped out Jiang Hui and six other villages if it hadn't been stopped. When we interrogated them they gave us next to nothing. All they said was that this wouldn't be the last we saw of them and they said that their organization is called the Earth Kingdom Liberation Army."

"Looking over the free papers they give out it's clear that they think if they get the population itself to rise up against all firebenders and the Fire Nation that they'll be able to force all the Fire Nation citizens out of the colonies," Aang explained.

"But if they keep pushing like this, doesn't it risk another war with the Fire Nation?" Toph asked.

"Yeah, if they keep attacking Fire Nation citizens, the Fire Nation might have to intervene, which could create tension with the Earth Kingdom," Katara pointed out. "That could risk restarting the war."

"A war is what they want, isn't it," Sokka said, mulling it all over. He was pretty sure he'd actually already worked out the angles here. "Because at this point, another war would destroy the Fire Nation."

Zuko hung his head slightly and breathed in and out deeply before speaking.

"We've fulfilled all our promises to the other nations of the world. I've demilitarized the country and cut down the army to what's only necessary for home defense. I've had most of the war balloons and other weapons decommissioned. I've offered reparations to the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes to help them rebuild - but it's cost us. We're fine as we are. After all the wealth my nation built up on the backs of the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, the least we can do is give some of it back, and we have enough resources for the Fire Nation to prosper despite that - but another war would destroy us. We don't have the military strength _and i_ t would bankrupt the country."

"They want to escalate the conflict to try to get the Earth Kingdom to invade the Fire Nation now that the country's vulnerable," said Sokka.

Zuko nodded. "They want us wiped off of the face of the Earth. Just like my father tried to do to the Earth Kingdom."

Aang chimed up, "To make things worse, the spirits are causing problems, too. They're being agitated by all the fighting and the anger. They're starting to attack people. And Zuko said some of his patrolling ships have even seen what they think look like dragons over the ocean in some places."

"Which is impossible," Zuko said. "All the dragons besides Ran and Shaw are dead and there are hardly any islands out there that my country and the Water Tribes haven't charted. We think they might be seeing spirits active in the ocean, something we've never seen before."

"It's worrying," said Aang. "This is starting to happen everywhere. I've already talked to some of the spirits in the Spirit World and they said that they can all sense that something's coming, some great change or conflict. They said the world's about to change somehow but weren't able to explain how."

"Sounds like a lot of hooey to me," said Toph, where she lounged on her cushions, picking at her teeth. "If they weren't even able to say what it was."

"It's...it's strange, it reminds me of something," Aang said slowly. "At least the sightings on the ocean do."

"Reminds you of what?" Sokka asked.

"When I was younger Gyatso told me this story, about these islands, past the wall of storms on the ocean northwest of the Fire Nation."

"There's nothing past the wall of storms," said Sokka. His father had told him about it once, about how it was an area that the Water Tribes considered unnavigable. "It's just a really bad patch of ocean. Fortunately there's nothing up there and there are plenty of other routes to get from north to south."

"I don't know, Sokka. Gyatso said Air Nomads used to have stories about islands that once existed there. A long time ago - thousands and thousands of years ago - supposedly a group of people traveled there, hoping to live somewhere where they didn't have to deal with spirits, because they couldn't live in harmony with them. Only it turned out there were still spirits where they settled - dragon spirits. The legend goes that they went to war with them until only one was left and it cursed them all to be caught in an endless war with the dragon spirits as they reincarnated over and over into flesh and blood dragons. He said that the story went that an Air Nomad was the last to see them before the curse went into place, creating the wall of storms so they could never escape - and that the only way it could be broken was if they learned to live in peace with the dragons."

"Was it supposed to be true?" asked Katara.

Sokka wondered that, too. So much of Air Nomad culture and stories had been lost that he'd never heard of this one before, but there were a lot of things they'd never heard of about the Air Nomads that only Aang knew.

"Gyatso said nobody was sure. It was such an old story that it might have just been a legend, a cautionary tale. But if it was true there might be something out there and that might be part of what those ships are seeing. It might all be tied together somehow."

"It's just bad weather," Sokka insisted, because the whole thing sounded ridiculous, when it just being weather was an easy explanation. "It's been like that forever, just like it's cold in the south pole or how it never rains in the Si Wong desert."

"Don't you think that's strange, though? That it's been that way for so long?"

"It doesn't have to be spirits, there could be a perfectly reasonable non-spirit-magic natural phenomenon going on there," Sokka pointed out.

"Like all of the other perfectly reasonable natural phenomenon that turned out to be spirit world stuff in the last few years that you've known me?" Aang teased, grinning a wry grin. "Natural phenomenon like that?"

"Hey, I was right with Aunt Woo, wasn't I? Sort of." Sokka insisted, taking a gentle swipe at Aang's head that he deftly dodged. "Anyway, we can't go jumping to conclusions -" he wiggled his fingers mysteriously "-that there's a _magic_ , secret civilization there."

He raised a finger, his expression changing the way it always did when he was trying to point out sciencey things to the rest of them. "There are scholars at Ba Sing Se University right now that have theories about the weather. They think there are natural patterns that sometimes change not just with the seasons but that cycle through over longer periods of time. They call them 'climates.' Maybe that's just the way the climate is there."

"It doesn't matter what's causing it," Zuko asserted, looking impatient with Sokka's science lesson. "We have more important things to worry about. I can send out ships to explore it later. The sightings are probably spirits my soldiers are confusing for dragons and it's probably tied into the strange spirit activity. Stopping the conflict is our best chance at stopping it all, the first step we should take. We need to come up with some creative solutions to do that."

"Have you tried just sitting them all down and -"

"Tried it," said Aang and Zuko at the same time.

"You didn't even let me finish!" Sokka said.

"Anything that involves the community leaders coming together will do nothing," Zuko said. "Any past attempts fell through and they feel like it's pointless. They also have almost no control over most of the population. This has to be something that isn't obvious, something that engages the whole population so they consider putting their anger aside. If the Earth Kingdom Liberation Army can't get support from the people they'll lose their power base and resources and implode in on themselves."

"What about sitting all the people down?" Sokka suggested.

"What people?" Aang asked.

" _All of them_. Everyone in the colony. Find some way to get them all talking."

Aang pointed out, "Anytime they've been gathered together into crowds, giant fights have broken out that I've had to stop."

"So maybe the way to fix this," Sokka said, "is finding a way to bring them all together that makes them _not_ want to punch each other in the face."

"Something that simple's not going to -" Zuko started but Aang's eyes went wide and he interrupted him.

"Actually, I think Sokka's onto something," Aang said. "What if we gather them all together in a positive way? Like in some sort of cultural festival where both sides can show off their culture and they can all enjoy it together?"

Zuko rubbed his chin. "The Fire Nation's forced its culture on others for the last hundred years, but only after losing touch with it themselves."

"Now that you have all those cultural programs, the Fire Nation citizens there actually have something to share with them and if they're sharing it openly instead of forcing anything, the Earth Kingdom people might see that coexisting with it isn't so bad," said Aang brightly. "And they'll also be able to see that it won't stop them from enjoying their own culture like they couldn't in the past."

"Maybe we could even get both sides to work together on a few things," Katara suggested.

"Yeah, like getting chefs from both sides to make food for everyone together," Sokka suggested. He suggested it purely because food brought people together not because he wanted to eat it himself, no sir. "Or artists collaborating on art to exhibition during the festival. There have to be at least some people willing to cooperate and it can help set the tone for the entire thing, it can show the people who don't think they can all get along that there's a lot both sides have to gain from each other."

"You could maybe get earthbenders and firebenders to do some metalwork together, like in Yu Dao," Toph pointed out. "They can make namby pamby pretty stuff that isn't weapons. Decorative things. People like that stuff, right?"

"That...actually might work," said Zuko. "That's what helped iron things out at Yu Dao, the fact they had their own cultural identity that was a mix of both cultures. But it doesn't have to be a mix in the provinces. They only need to be shown that the two can coexist."

That made sense to Sokka. They didn't have to blend entirely - just like the Southern Water Tribe's culture wasn't identical to the Northern Water Tribe's culture, but they were able to coexist peacefully. And so could the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom, despite their differences. They didn't need to melt together, they could just...mingle. Nothing wrong with a good mingle.

"Check this out!" Sokka said, gesturing between them all. "Eh? Eh? We haven't all been together in almost a year and we've _still_ got it!"

* * *

They opted to rest for the night before making their way out to the Hu Xin provinces. Part of it was just wanting to spend time together, too, to catch up. Problem-solving was all well and good but they still all wanted to find out what was going on in each other's lives. Zuko was glad for their company but he hadn't been in a good mood for a very long time now and he found that he couldn't deal with the laughter for too long. It was grating. So he excused himself for a little and walked alone through the palace. Eventually he stopped at the hallway outside the courtyard, leaning against the railing and looking at the moonlight reflected on the turtle duck pond there.

Not far beyond it, Appa was sleeping comfortably and the sight of him resting so peacefully made Zuko smile at least a little, as he remembered the nights they'd all camped out together, under the stars, as he'd awkwardly won them over and been absorbed into the group like he'd belonged there the whole time.

It felt like such a long time ago and that thought made his heart ache just a little bit. They still saw each other but there would probably never be a time like that again, where they wandered around and camped out under the stars. He missed that feeling, like he was a part of something so much bigger than himself. He missed that sense of purpose.

He was fairly sure he was doing a good job as Firelord - other than some unruly elements, most of his people thought so, if only because now they no longer buried sons and husbands and fathers. He was popular with most of the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes, too. But it was still a slog, a never-ending series of problems placed before him and unlike the way it'd been back when they had to take out his father and stop the war, the end goal was never something so concrete and solid. It seemed like to would never end and like he was always balancing on the edge of a knife, constantly dealing in uncertainty and shades of grey.

"You're missing the party," came a voice behind him and he turned to see Katara had followed him. He could hear the laughter of Toph, Sokka, and Aang not far off. "Actually, it's more like the party's missing you."

"Not really in a partying mood."

"Are you okay? You don't really seem like yourself right now."

Zuko sighed. "I'm not even sure there's a 'self' I can be right now. I barely have time to _breathe_ or think about anything other than what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't really have any time to be...to be Zuko. Just Firelord Zuko. If that makes any sense."

"It makes plenty of sense. I think Aang's going through the same thing," Katara said, joining him by leaning against the railing. "The rest of us get to be ourselves. Sokka gets to plan things and use that big brain of his, I've been able to train my Waterbenders, Toph gets to train her metalbenders. But you two have to think about everyone other than yourselves almost constantly. I know it's exhausting."

"It's a mess. And every time it seems like we're doing something right, some giant problem blows up in our faces."

"Have you been doing anything in your downtime to relax? Aang at least comes to visit me."

"'Downtime?' Sorry, never heard of it," said Zuko sullenly. "Even when I have free time I have to throw stupid royal parties for the nobility to keep them from turning against me."

"What about that girl you were seeing that you told me about in your last letter? What was her name? Yu Yin?" Katara said, smiling at him in a way that showed she was hoping for some gossip.

Zuko just cast his eyes on the ground.

"That crashed and burned." Like so many things in his life did.

"What happened?" Katara asked gently. "Unless you don't want to talk about it."

"Everything seemed to be going fine. We'd have meals together. We'd walk through the gardens. We went to a few plays. I should've known something was wrong. She laughed at basically everything I said. I'm not that funny." A pause. "I'm not funny at all."

Most of the time he was a giant sourpuss and he didn't even try to be anything else. He'd spent too much of his life hating himself, he wasn't about to pretend he was anything other than someone that was perpetually cranky. That was who he was and he had to just deal with it.

But he'd hoped his kindness had come through, because he had tried to be kind. Even though he'd been awkward as he so often was, he'd hoped that he could show off how gentle he could be. He liked talking to her about things, especially since she was fine with him avoiding talking about politics and his work. They'd talked about plays and art and things he didn't usually take the time to enjoy that he needed to pay more attention to. And she'd made him _want_ to pay more attention to it. She'd seemed sweet and compassionate and she wasn't exactly a slouch in the brains department.

A little too smart. A little too crafty in the end. And nowhere near as sweet and compassionate as she seemed.

"I overheard her talking with a friend at one of the stupid parties I have to throw for the nobles sometimes. She didn't realize I'd gone back to my room to change because one of the guests got clumsy and spilled their drink on my robes, so I was nearby, on my way back. She was tittering about how she was only dating me for the status, hoping she'd become the Firelady. She said some things about how boring I was and how much of a stick in the mud I was and how she could barely stand to put up with me."

"Oh, Zuko," Katara said, reaching out her hand to rest it over his. "That's horrible. _She's_ horrible!"

"I broke it off and told her she would never be welcome at any royal party again. Ever."

In the past his father might have done something like exile someone like that but he wasn't his father. Besides, saying she wasn't allowed at any of the parties and royal functions like the rest of the nobility was probably the worst punishment he could've inflicted on a power-hungry noble like her, anyway, if maneuvering herself into a place of better status was her goal.

"I'm so sorry," Katara said, and then she gave him a hug. His sour expression broke up a little as he hugged her back. Even though he was no longer fending off assassination attempts and dealing with all the vipers he'd had to contend with when he first stepped up as Firelord, he still sometimes felt like he was surrounded by leeches, always trying to suck him dry. It felt nice to be among friends again, to feel like he was actually cared about by someone. The only time he ever felt that way anymore was when he was with his friends or his uncle.

"It's fine."

"It's okay if it's not fine," she said, drawing away to look him in the face. "And you realize I can always tell when you're lying, right?"

"Okay, it's not fine," he said more honestly, leaning on the railing again, "but I'll get over it. I've got more important things to worry about, anyway."

"You deserve better than that, Zuko. And you _will_ find somebody someday that treats you the way you deserve," she promised him. "Someone who isn't the worst, most horrible - ooooh, I can't believe she did that!"

Katara's rage on his behalf almost made him smile. Almost.

"It's not a priority right now. Finding someone."

Honestly, after this, it wasn't going to be a priority ever. There was no point. He ruined most of his own relationships and the times like this where he tried, where he did everything right, they never worked out anyway.

"I'm just saying, when it is a priority again, there's definitely someone out there for you, someone that'll understand what a good person you are, and see what _we_ all see in you."

She smiled at him and he found that he was able to smile back at least a little. It didn't reach his eyes.

"Thanks, Katara."

"Do you want to come back with me? The others are wondering where you are."

"I'll be back in a bit," he said, "I just need some time to myself."

"Okay," she said, sounding unsure, "we'll be waiting."

He gave her another thin smile and as soon as she was gone, it flickered off his face again and he looked out into the courtyard.

Zuko knew his friends and uncle cared about him. He wasn't alone in the world. Sometimes he even thought that maybe he wasn't the worst ruler ever and maybe he was sort-of a good person. Kind of. Maybe.

And he knew that someday he'd have to choose someone to be the Firelady so that he had an heir. Maybe he'd even be lucky and find someone kinder than Yu Yin who he could at least have an amicable relationship with. Maybe he could find someone that could at least tolerate him.

But not love. He'd given up on that idea.

Who'd ever be able to love him? In a way that was real? He'd never find anyone that wanted someone like him, that wanted to be around him. He'd never find someone that didn't want something in return to make it worth it to put up with him. The best he could hope for was someone willing to bear him an heir in exchange for that wealth and status Yu Yin so desperately wanted that didn't hate his guts.

It was best to not bother with it. He had his people to take care of and the rest of the world to make amends to. He had to restore his nation's honor.

And when it came to love - always a confusing, messy thing - there was only one thing he knew for sure:

Love was something that happened to other people.

* * *

Aang felt a lot more energetic and well-rested when he woke up the next day, if only because them actually having a plan made it easier to get a good night's sleep. Zuko's servants already had Appa packed with what they needed before they even woke up.

Then all that was left to do was Zuko telling his staff what to do in his absence. By now, he had several generals and advisors that had proven themselves loyal and trustworthy so he didn't feel the need to call his uncle in every time he needed someone to cover for him, and he still always sent orders by messenger hawk with his personal seal while on the road.

Aang had met them before and some of them had done a good job of taking care of things while Zuko had come with him to resolve issues in the colonies.

"General Cho," he said, seeing one of them that he'd spoken to in the past. Aang bowed his head respectfully.

"Avatar Aang, always a pleasure to see you," said the general, bowing back. "You're doing well, I hope?"

"As well I can be with everything going on," said Aang, twirling his staff and balancing it across his shoulders. "But things are about to get better I think."

Cho was an older man with a grey beard and a very relaxed temperament. He had a gentle nature that reminded Aang of Iroh. He seemed a genuinely cheerful soul and Zuko said he'd been the only one of his father's former generals that he'd come to trust, as he'd always been most concerned with caring for the Fire Nation and had often opposed trying to gain new territory. When the war had ended he'd been happy about it, because now no more of his men would be sent off to die.

He was indeed the only general that Iroh had recommended that Zuko keep, because he and Iroh were old friends. He'd even once saved Zuko's life while on a trip with him and Aang to one of the colonies. An Earth Kingdom extremist had approached Zuko at a large public meeting and had tried to kill him with a poison dart and he'd done it so fast that even Aang wouldn't have reacted in time. Cho had seen it coming and destroyed it with firebending before it'd hit him.

"Firelord Zuko told me about your plan. I think it sounds like an excellent idea. It sounds like something Iroh would've come up with! That should've been your first clue that you're on the right track," General Cho said with a gentle smile.

"Are you going to be running things while we're gone?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I promise I'll try to keep the place from burning down while you're gone," he said with a small wink.

"General Cho," Zuko said, walking over to him. "We're about to leave. Everything's in your hands now. Keep in touch by messenger hawk if anything - and I mean _anything_ \- comes up."

"Of course. Is there anything else you need from me before you leave?"

"No." Zuko inclined his head politely. "For now, honorably guard my home."

The general bowed in return, "As you command, Firelord Zuko."

With all the arrangements made, they piled onto Appa and took to the air.

"Are you sure you can trust that guy to take care of everything while you're gone?" Sokka asked, looking down at the palace as they flew off.

"General Cho's filled in for me before without any problems," said Zuko, " _and_ he's an old friend of my uncle's, _and_ he saved my life. The only person more qualified would be my uncle."

"I'm just saying. He's some random general guy that I've never seen before."

"I've met him a bunch of times, Sokka," said Aang. "He's pretty trustworthy - and Zuko's right, even Iroh says we can trust him. You can't really get much more trustworthy than that."

"Technically you could if you were trusting Iroh to do it instead, but okay. I'll take your word for it."

"I'm not bothering my uncle every time I need to leave the Fire Nation," said Zuko. "He deserves his peace and quiet." A pause. "Also, every time he covers for me he declares a new holiday for celebrating tea. No country needs _four_ holidays a year dedicated to tea appreciation."

* * *

"Are you sure you'll be okay going alone?" asked Snotlout as Hiccup got Toothless all loaded up with a saddlebag of supplies and loaded a messenger Terrible Terror there in a comfortable little carrier. "I mean, not that I care or anything, but if you have to stomp somebody in the face you're really bad at it."

Hiccup rolled his eyes slightly at Snotlout insisting he didn't care when there'd been so many times that he'd demonstrated that yes, he did, but he didn't let him see it.

"Toothless can do all the stomping I need done, don't you think?"

"What if you need to stomp like a bunch of guys at once?" asked Tuffnut. "Toothless has only four legs."

"And a tail," Ruffnut put in. "Technically he can stomp people in the face with that. Kind of."

"Okay, he only has four legs and a leg-like...thing," said Tuffnut. "What if you have like ten guys that need their faces stomped?"

"Yeah, you'd only be able to do it to…" Ruffnut froze as she tried - and failed - to do the math. "...a bunch of them."

"Either Toothless will shoot plasma blasts at them or we'll fly. Away. Since Toothless has wings. Something you guys have apparently forgotten."

"Are you sure you don't want one of us to come?" asked Fishlegs. "Statistically speaking, the dangers of a quest across that wide a span of the ocean -"

"I am sure you have them calculated out to a very, very precise percentage," Hiccup laughed, "but I'll be okay. I was okay going out to the Green Isles, wasn't I?"

"But this is a lot farther," said Snotlout, aptly. He wasn't exactly the brightest of Hiccup's little gaggle of friends. In order of brightness, the top three were Astrid, Fishlegs, and Eret. But Snotlout was definitely brighter than the twins - which...really wasn't saying much but he could be oddly practical at times. "And you have no idea what's out there."

"Yeah, there could be a dragon that melts faces," Tuffnut pointed out. "That's different from the dragon we already know about that melts faces."

"Let the man get on with it," said Eret. "He can handle himself well enough."

" _Thank you_ ," said Hiccup, getting on Toothless' back, gathering up the large net he planned to use for them to hitch a right on one of the Brightclaws and fastening it where it needed to be around Toothless' neck.

"Sometimes a man needs his time to thrill in the danger of the unknown!" Eret said, gesturing dramatically. "Maybe meet a few pretty ladies, bust some heads -"

"Actually, I'm really hoping there's _not_ any head-busting, seeing as this is potentially a diplomacy thing, nor am I looking for a date, but one outta three isn't bad, I guess," Hiccup jibed.

"Come back in one piece," was all Astrid had to say, as she stood there with her arms crossed. "That's an _order_. From your fellow chief."

"Yes, ma'am," said Hiccup, flipping her a little salute.

"Just to clarify," said Gobber, "She means in one piece without any bits _missing_ from that piece - which is something you've had some difficulty with in the past."

"I do hereby solemnly swear that Toothless and I will come back in one piece each, without any pieces missing from those two pieces. Is that enough? Is that enough for you guys? Okay, then."

Before he could take off, his mother came over and took his hand. Unlike the others, she wasn't going to fret endlessly, it seemed, but she still had something to say.

"Please be careful, son," she implored him, looking up at him with wide, watery eyes, and he knew what she was thinking. He knew the exact thought in her head was that she couldn't lose him, too.

Because sometimes, when she was in danger, he thought the same thing. Rather than blowing her off like he was blowing off the others, he leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Before the first snowfall, mom. I promise."

That seemed to be enough for her because she let go, but her eyes didn't look any less scared.

He pulled on his helmet and flipped the mask down over his face.

"Okay, we're off then. Don't burn the village down while I'm gone - Ruff and Tuff, that is directed at you specifically, try not to start any wars, and remember to replace the water in the dragon wash because I swear to Odin I have to be the only one that ever takes care of that."

"Good luck," said Eret with a grin, looking a bit jealous that he wasn't able to come along.

"Here's hoping I won't need it. Come on, bud," Hiccup said, tapping Toothless neck, and he and his dragon took to the air. He saw his friends looking up at him from down below - and the rest of the village with them. They were all there to see him off.

Before they left the village entirely, they did a lazy flyby past the statue of his father.

 _Hey, dad. I'll try to make you proud._

It was probably going to take him being as strong a leader as his father was to make this whole thing work out well, if there were people out there he had to make a good impression on.

After that brief moment of solemnity, he and Toothless flew off and he watched the village shrink away down below and wondered how long it'd be until he saw it again.

Before the first snow. At least. That was the longest he'd let this take.

Toothless suddenly shot a celebratory plasma blast and Hiccup ducked down just in time to avoid getting singed too badly.

"Well, _somebody's_ excited we're finding new places to fly to, huh?" Hiccup said, rubbing his dragon's neck affectionately. He sat up and looked out at the endless horizon, smiling behind his helmet. "I'm excited, too, bud."

* * *

"It's time to act."

"Why now, sir?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm just curious as to why you haven't acted sooner. You even saved Firelord Zuko's life."

"Well, I couldn't let him be killed by that Earth Kingdom extremist before our organization was fully in place, could I? Then Iroh would've become Firelord and we would've had a much more difficult time infiltrating our way into the many places we needed to, under his watchful eye. He's far more shrewd than his nephew."

General Cho was almost finished writing his letter. The instructions had to be very...specific. He was sitting on the Firelord's own desk as he did it, in his private study. There was irony there that the order to kill Zuko was being written in the same place he'd written so many orders that choked the life out of the Fire Nation, bit by bit.

"Now the Red Hand has infiltrated parts of the army, the courts, parts of the domestic forces," General Cho went on, "Enough for us to turn the tides. We've even managed to save many of the ships he wanted decommissioned and war machines he wanted destroyed - hidden them on uninhabited islands away from the Fire Nation."

"Is Zuko the only one to be killed, sir? Won't leaving the Avatar alive be risky?"

"No, the order's to kill them _all._ And make it look as if the separatists did it. Zuko, the Avatar, and their friends - they're so beloved by everyone that will be enough to kick off hostilities with the Earth Kingdom the way we need to. The Earth Kingdom will blame us, naturally - correctly so. We'll blame the Earth Kingdom. The Water Tribes won't be sure to blame. An opening volley." He finished up the letter, rolled it up, and put it in a container to be sent by messenger hawk. More poetically, he said, "A shot heard around the world."

"I'll see to it that this gets sent, sir," said the soldier.

"Make sure you do, this will be the best chance we have," said the general. "To end this...this _degradation_ of our nation. To keep the Firelord and the Avatar from bleeding it dry. Our nation's future depends on this. It's our _one_ chance to restore it to its former glory and this will be the best chance to kill the ones that would stand in our way all at once."

"Understood, sir. I'll send it right away," said the soldier, bowing. "Hail the Red Hand."

"Hail the Red Hand," the general said with a nod, and the soldier bowed, taking the order with him, leaving the general alone in Zuko's study. He pinched the bridge of his nose, thinking about all the loose ends that needed to be tied up. There were so many.

There was at least one he could start on right now. No one would think to search his person and he liked to be on top of things. He might as well write it ahead of time. He picked up the quill again and started to write:

 _Dear Iroh,_

 _My esteemed and noble friend, it is with a heavy heart that I give you this news but I thought it best that you hear it first from a friend before anyone else._ _It is my painful duty to inform you that a report has come from the Hu Xin provinces that your nephew, Firelord Zuko, is dead..._


End file.
